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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CHRIST 



VERSUS 



CHRISTIANITY. 



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Introite, nam et hic Deus est. 

{Enter, for here too is God.) 






PUBLISHED BY 

AMERICAN ELZEVIR COMPANY, 

23 Court Street, Boston, Mass. 

1892. 



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Copyright, 1892, 
By William Pillsbury Hale. 



All rights reserved. ^-- t<-'*-'V^ 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



PREFACE. 



TN the following pages the author has endeavored 
to give his candid opinion as a layman upon 
subjects which few laymen comparatively have con- 
sidered. He has no apologies to offer. No one is 
obliged to read or entertain his opinions, though he 
frankly confesses that it is his hope that many will 
do both. Ideas have been taken freely wherever 
they have been found. The author is debtor to 
the wise and the foolish. He hopes none will feel 
offended because acknowledgments are not made ; 
he will feel complimented if any shall make use 
of his ideas, poor as they are, without thanks or 
acknowledgment. If some statements seem severe, 
yet no malice has entered in. It will be remem- 
bered that there is no intrinsic evil in severity ; 
the judgment is to be blamed, if it is misapplied. 
He recognizes that honesty largely prevails among 
those who hold to the beliefs and customs which 
have received the severest condemnation ; perhaps 
the same honesty of motive will be granted him. 



IV PREFACE. 

Some one has said that sarcasm is the scourge 
of folly ; as such it has been used here. Sarcasm 
seems oftentimes to reach what nothing else will ; 
still, the author has but a qualified belief in it. 
Scourging he deems vastly inferior to reason, even 
going so far as to spare the rod altogether, believing 
that his children — and all children are his — are 
not thereby spoiled, but rather improved. Harsh- 
ness often confirms the erring in their wrong, cre- 
ating obstinacy from very spite. Love and kindness 
always correct error, and leave no sting behind to 
fester. Love always gains a hearing. The author 
loves men, and will feel amply repaid if but a few 
derive benefit from these poor but honest pages. A 
long life is well spent, if by it men become better. 
Life is noble, is worth living, is worth loving ; and 
to do good is the highest religion. 

January 25, 1892. 



CONTENTS. 



♦ 

PAGE 

I. Testimony 7 

IL Christ 60 

III. Christianity .119 

lY. The Church 158 

V. Dogma 201 

VL Immortality 250 

VII. Philosophy and God 278 

VIII. Agnosticism 305 

IX. Morality 339 

X. Religion 365 



Do right, and fear no one : you may he sure that 
with all your consideration for the world you will 
never satisfy the world. 



Christ vs. Christianity. 



I. 

TESTIMONY. 



" It 's so, because my father says it 's so ; and when my father says 

it 's so, it 's so, whether it 's so or not." 

MEN are but children grown older, and a sur- 
prising number, men grown, reason with the 
same easy dependence of childhood. Not only the 
Jews, but all people, have placed more credence in 
the tradition of their ancestors than in the evidence 
of their own senses and the decision of their own 
judgment. A well-known contemporary Episcopal 
clergyman furnishes a perfect illustration of this 
fact in the words : " I had rather have a ' Thus 
saith the Lord' than all the teachings of modern 
philosophers.'' ^ 

Testimony is a magnetic needle, — it always tends 
to point to the polar star, truth ; but like the mag- 
netic needle it is always more or less in error. The 
needle is always swayed a little to one side or the 
other by sundry bits of steel ; oftentimes it is not 
quite at equipoise on its pivot ; and again electrical 
or atmospherical conditions affect it. So testimony is 
often misdirected by prejudice ; oftentimes it proceeds 
from those whose mental balance needs adjustment, 
1 Dr. Hall, 1891. 



8 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

for deep, intense feeling or enthusiasm occasions a 
temporary mental dethronement ; and again it is af- 
fected by education and environment. Habits and 
customs rule us, and consequently rule our testimony. 
With the enlightenment which four thousand years of 
education has given us, it is still a difficult thing to 
describe adequately current events ; to give a perfect 
description seems impossible. To-day, as four thou- 
sand years ago, we look through a glass darkly, 
though surely our glass is considerably better than 
that which the ancient writer was in the habit of 
using. We are still, however, apt to find what we 
seek wherever we look. Especially is this so if we 
have strong feelings on the subject in question. 

If there is any one subject concerning which men 
have made up their minds without knowing wh}^, it is 
that of religion. We inherit our religious opinions 
even more truly than we do our political opinions. 
Custom and fashion exercise an almost unbounded 
religious influence. Current opinions are thrust upon 
us, and for the most part we accept them without 
question. It is perfectly natural to do so, and I think 
we all do accept such common opinions, to a certain 
extent at least. Every great religion is based on 
those which precede it. Knowledge itself is so ac- 
quired, and religion must follow. Religion is largely 
the accidental result of birth and education. 

One's opinions are like one's language. We learn 
to thijik the thought of the fatherland just as we 
learn to speak the language of the fatherland. We 
take pains to bring up a child in a certain prevailing 
faith, — is it strange that he should cling to it as he 
grows older ? Religious faith, too, has a great ten- 
dency to retain a permanent, unchanging form. It 
always involves something intangible, something un- 



TESTIMONY. 9 

seen and remote, not to say unintelligible. We have 
been taught to approach so-called sacred writings with 
bated breath and submissive veneration. Perhaps few 
people have not heard statements like the following, 
which was made to me recently by an individual of 
superior education and general culture : " When I read 
the Scriptures and find something which seems un- 
reasonable, I simply conclude that my reason must 
give way to my faith." Sir Thomas Browne puts it 
in this way : " I can read the history of the pigeon 
that was sent out of the ark and returned no more, 
and not question how she found out her mate that 
was left behind; that Lazarus was raised from the 
dead, yet not demand where in the interim his soul 
awaited." 

The whole spirit of criticism has been vastly differ- 
ent from that of religion. Criticism is interrogation, 
is reason, is judgment ; religion has been faith, humil- 
ity, submission. Religious triumph has been submissive 
obedience ; critical triumph is reasonable conviction. 
One is from the heart; the other is from the head. 
The tender, sensitive believer is shocked by doubt. 
What ! shall God take the witness-stand ? Must the 
Creator submit to the examination of the created ? 
" Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Let 
the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. 
Shall the clay say unto him that fashioned it. What 
makest thou ? or thy work. He hath no hands ? Woe 
unto him that saith unto his father. What begettest 
thou ? or to the woman, What hast thou brought 
forth ? " Would that the clay might rise up and in- 
struct the moulder ; at least many such have needed 
sadly some kind of instruction, and I suspect, if the 
begotten might have had a previous hearing, there 
would be vastly less woe on earth to-day. Such has 



10 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ever been the state of the believing mind. The faith- 
ful of all ages have ever thought of their god only in 
holy adoration ; his awful presence is sought only on 
bended knees. Thou shalt not take the name of thy 
god in vain, has always been the rule. Doubt is sin. 
and faith is really the only virtue. Live a pure life, 
if you will, but your case is hopeless without faith. 
How spirits so sensitive with their god, so submissive, 
can be so harsh with men, is a mystery. "Faith," 
defines the Scriptural writer, "is the evidence of 
things not seen ; " and he might have added, " pretty 
poor evidence too." 

An honest, pure faith is beautiful indeed. It is like 
youth which looks confidently, calmly, trustfully out 
upon the world. No hero-worship in earth below or 
sky above is more beautiful than the worship of a 
tender wife who cherishes unswerving faith and loy- 
alty to her dissolute husband. This very devoted- 
ness is one of the greatest elements of excellence, 
withal one most likely to lead astray. Eeverence is 
good, but how much more so when its object is worthy ? 
For our own good we must question the spirits whether 
they be of God. Progress is impossible without doubt. 
We are what we are to-day largely because of the ques- 
tions of previous ages. Our spiritual growth has come 
more by tearing down the old than by upbuilding the 
new. Submission always ends in servitude. Never 
a slave but found a master. On the other hand, too 
much doubt ends in absolute scepticism and abject 
pessimism. The well-balanced mind has elements of 
both. He that has the greatest faith is also very 
careful in what he places it. 

E,eligious criticism is dangerous ground to traverse, 
beyond a doubt. The critic is slandered and vilified 
by many or most believers. His motives even are 



TESTIMONY. 11 

pronounced vicious. Eead what an authority in the 
early part of the present century said of Hume : 
" From a mere fondness for speculation, or a love for 
philosophical applause, the least harmful motives we 
can attribute to Hume, it was the business of his life 
to extirpate from the human mind all that the good 
and wise among mankind have concurred in venerat- 
ing.'' And what is even worse, if worse can be, the 
writer in conclusion finds it a source of regret that he 
died in a pleasant frame of mind. Thus it has been 
wit] I every great independent thinker, not one of 
whom but proved his cause. Socrates, in whom was 
mingled a little divine with the animal clay, drank 
the cup of hemlock ; Jesus Christ, the soul of Chris- 
tendom to-day, perished ignobly on the cross as a 
heretic ; Galileo, who proved the falsity of the old 
theory of the universe, twice suffered the terrors of 
the Inquisition, and the horrible anxiety in which he 
passed the rest of his days was infinitely worse than 
these ; Luther threw off the yoke of a bigoted and 
lying priesthood, and all but lost his life for it. But 
it is needless to search antiquity for examples. Have 
we not our own Paine and Ingersoll ? Is there an 
educated person that has not known instances of 
shameful scurrility and abuse directed against Darwin 
and Huxley ? 

As was said before, reforms are generally more 
directly destructive than constructive. And this is 
just where men stand in their own light. Society 
has little and great men, just as the earth has moun- 
tains and valleys. The sun lights up the hilltops 
while it is still dark in the valleys below ; so truth is 
discerned by great minds before it becomes manifest 
to the multitudes. But how stubbornly do men per- 
sist in facing the darkness ! Every new truth has 



12 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

been steadily resisted. We are made uneasy under 
powerful light; we are dazzled; oftentimes ^ve are 
shocked. Furthermore our interests are destroyed, 
or we think they are. We, like the Ephesian arti- 
sans who denounced the apostles because their trade 
was injured, must surely look out for our own sweet 
selves. 

Whoever opens up new lines of thought, and dis- 
turbs the prejudices and interests of his contempo- 
raries, must suffer for his research. The Inquisition 
has passed away, but its great underlying principles 
of dogma and prejudice still remain. One who knew^ 
from painful experience said that he who in this 
most important of all subjects, namely, intellectual 
and moral progress, strikes out a new path for him- 
self, may as well realize, first as last, that little will 
be his reward save the consciousness of an honest, 
earnest effort to the highest end. Most of his discus- 
sion will end in scurrility, the general resort of the 
disputant \vho cannot answer and will not be con- 
vinced. Cynicism and sarcasm, on the other hand, 
are not the best offensive weapons. I am sure that 
the truth must come sooner or later, and every ear- 
nest effort can but hasten the day. Sincere believers 
I approach with the kindest intent. If their faith 
rests upon sound principles, whatever I shall say will 
only tend to strengthen it. If it prove unsound, I am 
sure they cannot wish the fact to be unknown. Old 
oft-repeated assertions may as well be abandoned. 
Authorship is of no account. We do not believe the 
testimony. The world is no longer in its primitive 
childhood. It has for the most part laid away those 
early childish things. 

At the outset we may as well trace in brief the 
history of religious thought. Men found themselves 



TESTIMONY. 13 

living in a world of which they had no knowledge. 
Their own lives, too, were a puzzle to them. Differ- 
ing from the animals only by an increased capacity 
for gaining and desiring knowledge, at first perhaps 
unconsciously, then consciously and laboriously, they 
began to observe the things about them, and later 
to ^examine themselves. Limited on all sides by 
innumerable barriers, they recognized a great force 
beyond themselves, ruling them, the world, and the 
universe. Nature excited them to veneration and 
awe. Some things, at first few, they understood; 
other things seemed beyond them. What they under- 
stood, they obeyed ; the rest they worshipped : things 
of use and beauty they made of the one, of the other 
they made gods. 

All religions have the same essential characteris- 
tics. Gods are not meaningless. A fundamental 
truth lies behind every god that the world has ever 
seen. Every god means an earnest striving for the 
unknown. We have sun-worship, one of the earliest 
religions known. The sun is apparently the source 
of life. Then we have water as the real god, perhaps 
for the same reason. Every theogony, every legend, 
has an element of truth in it. Cronos, Time, is the 
child of the heavens. Is not time measured by light 
and darkness, and are not these from heaven appar- 
ently? Time devours its own children in death. 
Yet Zeus, Life, conquers Time ; and here we have 
a gleam of immortality. Water is the father of all 
things, and yet he has an ancestry, — Ouranos and 
Gaia, Heaven and Earth, — the production of water 
being from the clouds above and the earth below. 
His wife was Tethys, Mother-earth, for she was a 
nurse. Their offspring were the little rivers whom 
Mother-earth nurses on her bosom^ and the ocean 



14 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

nymphs. Ouranos becomes enamoured of Gaia, and 
settles down upon her in clouds ; she conceives, and 
the fruits of the earth are her offspring. Thus 
Paganism was cumulative. A new discovery was a 
new god. Paul says he found at Athens an image 
inscribed to the unknown god, so great was their 
reluctance in omitting any. 

Soon men perceived that after all the force in Nature 
was single rather than multiple ; otherwise they had 
continued multiplying their gods until now. Indeed, 
after this unity was recognized, the Pagans continued 
to retain their outward faith at least. Finally the 
old ceremonies became a mockery. The Roman 
priests used to laugh and jest about sacred things 
before the populace. The augurs used to exchange 
winks. Public sacrifice was a joke. Paganism be- 
came an institution, not of religion, but of policy. 
A comparison between the gods of Paganism and the 
Antonines would be an impertinent insinuation, says 
Gibbon. The morality of Caesar and Augustus was 
perfection compared with that of their gods. People 
could not accept and respect as gods beings whom 
they rejected and despised as men. Paganism be- 
came a lie, a shaking of the head to the nations. 
To-day we admire it, as realized among the Greeks, 
as a beautiful mythology. At its best it is the most 
beautiful system of religion the world has ever 
seen. 

The Hebrews early broke away from Paganism, 
and developed their faith on a different line. They 
based their religion essentially on moral principles. 
Yet the Hebrew faith was influenced by Paganism, 
and this influence continually exerted was a source 
of infinite trouble. Professing one personal god, the}^ 
left the road open to many, and we find them continu- 



TESTIMONY. 15 

ally recurring to polytheism. Their god at best was 
tlie great lawgiver, a mighty judge who had appointed 
a veritable Dies Irce. Their religion was expansive 
like Paganism, but in a different direction. As moral 
law became better defined, their god grew to embrace 
it. And the god of Christianity to-day is this same 
old Hebrew god, propped and patched up, improved 
and expanded to meet our present ideas of morality. 
There is scarcely a single denomination to-day that 
is not revising its creed, remodelling the old god to 
fit the niche which the age has designated. 

There is much in common in these two systems, 
one expanding to meet physical ideas, the other ex- 
panding to meet moral ideas. No system is com- 
plete for all time. And yet the masses of every age 
regard their creed as the sum total, to which nothing 
may be added, from which nothing may be sub- 
tracted. It is mathematical infinity. No one knows 
it, yet all talk about it as if it were a well-defined 
certainty. With this we are ready to examine the 
testimony. What is the evidence of our faith ? 

The Bible ! Never book was more truly wor- 
shipped. Never book so penetrated the manners, 
the literature, the imagination, the occupation, the 
very language of people. In it millions have found 
their God and their King. For no written word was 
there ever such heroic sacrifice. No other word shall 
stand beside it. It is from Almighty God himself; 
it is with God ; it is God. Nothing shall prevail 
over that word. To it they have submitted their 
reason ; by it they have governed their conduct ; for 
it they have given their peace, their prosperity, ay, 
their very lives. There it stands in every house in 
Christendom to this day ; approached with sanctified 
veneration ; read with blanched faces and with a 



16 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

strange, slow, solemn intonation ; ever kept with 
watchful care in the best room and in the place of 
great honor, be it a costly gilt and morocco volume 
or a cheap and dirty pamphlet, resting on an elegantly 
embroidered cushion or on a rude bench; in it are 
sacred records kept. Here is the sweetest and most 
touching example of loyalty and unswerving trust the 
world has ever seen, withal sad enough to move a 
god to pity. 

The great question which I wish to raise at present 
concerning this sacred book is. Does it differ essen- 
tially from other ancient testimony ? Throughout 
the Old Testament, and in much of the New, we 
find the peculiar ineffaceable impress of Paganism. 
Despite the great apparent difference, the gods of 
Paganism and the god of the Hebrews are wonder- 
fully similar. Especially is this true when both are 
at their worst, though sufficiently so at all times" to 
establish their common source. All the cosmogonies 
are strikingly alike. All have a peculiar uncertain 
ring, though stated most solemnly. It seems as if 
doubt were slightly present to the writer's mind, and 
he is all the stronger in his asseverations, just as dis- 
putants wax angry, tear their hair, and pound the 
table at their weak points. 

« And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM, and lie 
said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM 
hath sent me unto you." 

" Ye shall do my judgments and keep mine ordinances, to 
walk therein : I am the Lord." 

A grim humor seems ever present. We are re- 
minded of masks, from which proceed all the various 
accents and tones of the human voice without change 
of expression. They laugh with wonderfully long- 
drawn faces 5 they cry with never a pucker or a tear j 



TESTIMONY. 17 

they converse with the same quiet, decorous gravity ; 
and the bitterest rage never ruffles their calm seren- 
ity. As one reads some of the solemn statements of 
the Old Testament, one knows hardly whether to 
laugh or to be serious. The childlike simplicity of 
the thought, like that of Homer, has a peculiar 
charm. One smiles at times involuntarily, as he 
does in reading any ancient story. Some of the 
transactions related recall vividly to mind our acts 
in childhood while at play. The world is indeed in 
its childhood. Again we are children, and join with 
it in the play. 

" And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, 
and there he put the man whom he had formed. ... And out 
of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, 
and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see 
what he would call them. . . . And the rib which the Lord 
God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her 
unto the man." 

Now we have the quaint, pretty story of the Temp- 
tation, one of the prettiest of antiquity. 

" Xow the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the 
field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the 
woman, Yea, hath God said. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the 
garden ? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat 
of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the 
tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye 
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And 
the serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall not surely die, for 
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes 
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for 
food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be de- 
sired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did 
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her. And he did 

2 



18 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

eat, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew 
that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and 
made themselves aprons." 

When they are discovered, the writer adds a fine 
touch, showing that he was observant of human na- 
ture, and that in his day it was not unlike that of to- 
day. He makes them shirk the responsibility. The 
man lays the blame upon the woman, and she in turn 
blames the serpent. Then God, to punish the crime, 
with captivating simplicity punishes all connected 
with it, — a precedent followed at least once by an 
English judge who in a case of false testimony, de- 
termined to reach the crime, gave sentence against 
plaintiff, defendant, and witness. I repeat, this sim- 
ple tale is as quaintly and whimsically artistic and 
beautiful as any story of antiquity. 

The old cosmogonies and mythologies are full of 
just such pretty tales as this. In itself the story 
seems to be an attempt to explain the origin of 
sexual knowledge, a crime punished by the pangs 
of childbirth in woman, and by the curse of work 
in man. Here again we find the common impress 
of antiquity and of barbarism of all times. Work 
is a curse. The golden ages of all peoples are ages 
of ease and freedom from all toil and care. Para- 
dises are regions of eternal bliss and endless har- 
mony; lands flowing with milk and honey, rich in 
women and wine. Even to this day a great portion 
of mankind are patiently awaiting just such a para- 
dise as this. Some, however, have learned that work 
is the great blessing of humanity. 

Erom frequent allusions throughout the Bible, it is 
made a certainty that this old story is the Hebrew 
solution of the sexual relation, as well as the fact 



TESTIMONY. 19 

that original sin is sexual intercourse. Indeed the 
two great evils which the Old Testament specially 
denounces are promiscuity of sexual intercourse and 
idolatry. Again and again these two crimes are re- 
ferred to. The most horrible punishments which the 
age could conceive of, and the bitterest curses that 
could be imagined, were pronounced against both. 
Little else would remain in the Old Testament, if 
these allusions were omitted, than the Psalms. 

Another unique story appears in Genesis, doubtless 
invented to account for the difference in language ex- 
isting among the different races : — 

" And the whole earth was of one language and of one 
speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, 
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt 
there. And they said to one another, Go to, let us make brick 
and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and 
lime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build 
us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven ; and 
let us make us a name, lest we \\e scattered abroad upon the 
face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the 
city and the tower which the children of men builded. And 
the Lord said. Behold this people is one, and they have all 
one language, and this they begin to do ; and nothing will be 
restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, 
let us go down and there confound their language, that they 
may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scat- 
tered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth ; 
and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of 
it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the lan- 
guage of all the earth ; and from thence did the Lord scatter 
them abroad upon the face of all the earth." 

In this story another characteristic common to the 
gods of every race appears ; namely, they are all jeal- 
ous of men. God visits the site of the famous tower 



20 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

to see what the children of men are up to, and so en- 
lightening is his visit that he concludes that nothing 
will be restrained from them, and so he says, " Go to, 
we will confound their language." Again and again 
in other parts of the Scriptures the statement is made 
that God is a jealous God. Just so the Greek deities 
were ever envious of some action or attribute of men. 
Niobe boasts of her children, and angers Leto, who 
sends Apollo to kill them all with his winged darts ; 
Prometheus steals lire from heaven, and for punish- 
ment, since the gods do not wish men to use or un- 
derstand the use of fire, a vulture eternally feeds on 
his entrails ; a goddess, because her beauty is spurned 
for that of a shepherdess, destroys a nation after a 
ten years' war. Says Horace : " We aim at heaven 
itself in our folly, nor do we suffer, by our wicked- 
ness, Jove to lay aside his wrathful thunderbolts.'' 
There is not a single instance of a god that does not 
conspicuously exhibit this characteristic of jealousy 
towards humanity. 

These simple-minded, primitive people found them- 
selves and those about them existing in certain con- 
ditions, and so they set to work to explain it. 
Communication between the different races was not 
so common then as now, so each race had its own 
theories. Every nation made its own world, and gen- 
erally limited it to themselves and the neighboring 
races. Now and then strange stories would come of 
a wonderful people afar off at the end of the world. 
Some few of the race, venturing farther from home 
than the rest, or swept to unknown shores by tem- 
pests, would be captured by unknown men, and after 
years, perhaps, would escape and bring home accounts 
of the strange people. Fragments of the stories they 
had heard and faintly comprehended would linger. 



TESTIMONY. 21 

Ideas would become confused. Out of it all we have 
numerous and confused traditions. 

The Biblical story of the Creation seems to be of 
Persian origin ; the names of the first pair are cer- 
tainly Persian, and it is well known that the He- 
brews were freed from bondage by Cyrus of Persia. 
The Talmud makes Adam by sections out of earth 
from different parts of the world, though the Jews 
at that time knew but a small part of it. The Ma- 
hometan tradition causes man to be created from 
the seven different strata of the earth. Thus man 
seeks to explain his origin. The one great object of 
science is to discover the life principle. Without 
doubt the ancient writer who told his ingenious 
story of the Creation was actuated by the same 
motives that caused Darwin to broach the theory of 
evolution. Only the methods of the two were dif- 
ferent. The first dawn of literature is always poetic 
and imaginative. Cold scientific facts do not appeal 
to infant minds. 

But the Hebrew faith did not end with the creation 
any more than that of other nations. It pervaded 
the events of daily life. Whatever happened was 
due to the direct influence of God. The voice of the 
murdered brother's blood cries unto God from the 
ground, and God responds to the murderer with an 
awful curse ; he places the rainbow in the heavens 
in eternal promise; he sends the plague and pesti- 
lence upon the Pharaohs; he comes in a dream to 
Jacob, and gives him promises of land and pros- 
perity; he appears to Moses in the form of a fiery 
bush, and promises to deliver his chosen people from 
bondage; after a lengthy conversation with Moses, 
to convince him of his presence, he changes a rod in 
his very hands to a serpent, and again, at his com- 



22 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

mand, it assumes its former shape ; all the first-born 
of Egypt he slays in one night ; he tells the Israelites 
what food they shall eat ; he guides them on their jour- 
ney out of Egypt by night and by day ; he causes the 
sea to part and give them dry passage ; he sends them 
food from heaven ; he tells them he is their God, and to 
him alone must they bow down ; he gives them his com- 
mandments ; he warns them of idolatry ; he prescribes 
their law, — eye for eye, tooth for tooth; he limits their 
marriage ; he sends them an angel for a guide ; he or- 
ders Moses up into a mountain, and gives him the law 
on tablets of stone ; he stays with Moses forty days 
and forty nights ; he repents of the evils he intends ; 
he orders sacrifices to be burned in his honor ; he 
sets the days of uncleanness for man and woman ; 
he describes the leprosy, and defines the measures to 
be taken to avoid it ; he orders just weights and just 
balances ; he prescribes the limits of slavery ; he 
threatens, he rages, he storms at his obstinate people ; 
he sends them water from a solid rock ; he cures them 
when they are bitten by serpents, if they glance at a 
brazen image ; he inspires an ass to rebuke his own 
prophet ; he reasons with his people ; exasperated at 
their stubbornness, he pronounces a curse upon them, 
descending to the third and fourth generations ; he 
will make his arrows drunk with blood ; he pro- 
nounces a list of curses against them unequalled for 
severity in the history of the world ; he warns them 
against false prophets; he forbids interchange of 
garments between man and woman ; he commands 
Joshua to destroy the kingdom of Ai, and the sim to 
stand still, lengthening the day for this bloodthirsty 
tyrant ; he accepts the sacrifice of Jephtha's daughter ; 
he orders frightful massacres, of man and woman, in- 
fant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass ; he 



TESTIMONY. 23 

permits polygamy; he sends a stranger to confound 
his specially anointed in adultery. 

When the waves of death encompassed his people, 
and the sorrows of hell and the snares of death way- 
laid, him they sought for comfort ; he gives Solomon 
the reward of riches and honor and wisdom for his 
faithfulness and shrewdness, and then, because he 
became an adulterer, punishes him by destroying his 
kingdom, strangely enough after his death ; the 
ravens bring another prophet food from heaven; 
God sends him rain and fire, and speaks to him in 
a still small voice ; finally, he sends a chariot and 
horses of fire to bear him in triumph to heaven ; he 
sends two she-bears out of the forest to devour a 
crowd of mocking boys and girls ; the prophet lies 
on the body of a dead child, and the child sneezes 
and returns to life ; a carpenter loses a borrowed 
axe in a stream, and his prophet, throwing in a 
stick, causes the iron to swim ; a dead man cast into 
the prophet's grave, revives on contact with his 
bones ; he defends many cities for the sake of his 
prophets ; he causes the shadow to go backwards ten 
degrees for a sign of healing ; he tells his prophet 
that he will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, 
wiping it and turning it upside down ; he sends a 
pestilence upon Israel, because the devil tempted 
David to number the people ; to try his servant, he 
causes his children and cattle to die, and sends upon 
him terrible sores, so that he curses the day that 
gave him birth ; upon his resisting temptation, he 
restores him twofold pleasure and prosperity. 

Another sign he gives unto his people : a virgin 
shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call 
him Immanuel ; when this son is born, there shall 
be an era of peace and good will, the wolf shall dwell 



24 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the 
kid, the young fatling with the Lion, and a little child 
shall lead them ; in one day shall the women of 
Babylon suffer loss of children and widowhood for 
their sins ; idolaters he orders to be slain, old and 
young, maids and little children and women ; his 
faithful, increased in number, walk uninjured in a 
furnace of fire seven times hotter than usual, and not 
a smell of fire taints them ; he writes an awful judg- 
ment against Belshazzar's kingdom in the form of a 
puzzle on the walls of his banquet hall ; he keeps his 
prophet safe in a den of lions maddened with hunger ; 
in a vision, typical of the future, his proj)het sees a 
he-goat and a ram engage in combat; he causes his 
disobedient prophet to be cast into the sea by 
strangers, and a whale to swallow him ; seeing that 
he is resolved to obey, he orders the whale to cast 
him up on dry land ; he orders a gourd to grow for 
a shade to the prophet who sits waiting for the de- 
struction of a city that has displeased him, and then 
orders a worm to destroy the gourd for a moral 
lesson. 

The new dispensation fulfils the greatest prophecy. 
In truth, a virgin bears a son to God, while a star 
stands over his birthplace for a sign to wise men 
seeking the son; a dove alights upon his head, and 
a voice from heaven hails him Son of God ; the devil 
tempts him, and flies with him to the top of a high 
mountain ; the son rules the winds and the waves ; 
he heals the sick, he feeds the hungry, he changes 
water to wine, he prophesies, he works miracles by 
the hundreds, he escapes from the midst of an angry 
populace again and again ; he appears to his com- 
panions, and they know him not ; after a short, try- 
ing life he is crucified, and then the heavens are 



TESTIMONY. 25 

darkened, the mountains are shaken, the tombs are 
opened, and the dead walk forth, and the veil of the 
temple is rent ; in three days he returns to life, and 
shortly, in a cloud of fire, he ascends to God, his 
father in heaven. This is but a short summary of 
the strange things that are told in this work, but a 
sample from the body of evidence. 

Is there now anything peculiar about this evidence ? 
Are its characteristics, in general, at all surprising ? 
Does it differ at all essentially from any other ancient 
history? We are compelled to answer these ques- 
tions in the negative. The Bible, taken as a history, 
is in no way peculiar or remarkable as compared with 
other writings of its own times. Its age is no proof 
of its truth ; rather it is an indication of its falsity. 
This unreasonable respect for antiquity has been one 
of the most costly indulgences of the world. Anti- 
quities generally come high. This confidence in the 
past seems to be the result of a kind of chivalrous 
sentiment. In ancient days, when impulse was great 
and reason little, these sentiments were more active 
than they are at present. Undoubtedly they are 
growing weaker, and the rapidity of their disappear- 
ance in a degree marks the rapidity of our progress. 
In this we find the source of the poetic golden age 
of the ancients. The divine finds here the concep- 
tion of human innocence and perfection, and traces, 
alas ! the fall. In this veneration people have found 
men not only great in morals, but great in age and 
in stature. 

The literature of the Bible is just the same as that 
of any other ancient work, — full of marvels, of su- 
perstition, of miracles, and of curious old legends. 
When these occur in any other book, we of the pres- 
ent age hate the terrible, and praise and admire the 



26 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

beautiful and the true ; people of that ancient age 
believed them wherever they saw them, and they saw 
them everywhere. How shall we account for this 
strange inconsistency, that the superstitious, the 
miraculous, and the ridiculous is absolutely true, the 
Word of God, only when it occurs in the Bible ? In 
such belief as this we are not guided by reason. 
Even supposing that the Scriptural miracles are bet- 
ter authenticated than others, — a supposition which 
is absurdly false, — we cannot on this account con- 
clude that in the one case there is no reason for doubt 
and in the other no reason for belief. Why should 
we give faith to the early disciples, and none to the 
later saints ? We want the reason why Scriptural 
miracles and no others are true. Where is the line 
drawn ? Were all miracles true up to the end of 
the first century, and all false after the opening 
of the second ? Why do we believe that the Red 
Sea opened to let the Israelites pass, and ridicule the 
idea that the Sea of Pamphylia opened to give Alex- 
ander and his army passage ? Every miraculous 
tradition is rejected unless it be found in the Bible. 
However strong the evidence, no other shall stand. 
Yet from the time of the early proclamation of John 
the Baptist, that voice crying in the wilderness, " Pre- 
pare ye the way of the Lord," down to the last of the 
saints. Christian testimony offers a long, uninter- 
rupted succession of martyrs, prophets, and miracles. 
Superstitious progress was so gradual and its decline 
so imperceptible that no one can say when the charm 
was broken, or that it ever has been broken. Every 
age bears testimony to its power. Can we deny to 
the Venerable Bede or the holy Saint Bernard a 
credence implicitly given to Paul and Luke ? Con- 
sistency forbids. 



TESTIMONY. 27 

But, to return to the literature and thought of the 
past, it was intimated that these miracles, common 
to us in our worship, were once a part of daily life. 
They happened everywhere ; they convinced every- 
body. The literature of the Bible covers a period 
from the earliest times down through the Middle 
Ages. Many will claim that this period is about a 
thousand years too long ; but enough evidence has 
been brought forward by such eminent scholars as 
Strauss, Weiss, Kenan, Volkmar, Baur, and others 
to convince most that few of the Scriptural writings 
now remain as they originally were written, or that 
scarcely one has been assigned to its real period, 
and few to their real authors. Chronology I do not 
care to discuss, authorship I care nothing about, 
— the testimony, I maintain, is incorrect ; and 
this testimony is little if at all more incorrect 
than any other during this long period to which I 
refer. That it differs not in the least essential 
from other contemporary testimony, examples will 
best illustrate. We shall find that both Christian 
and Pagan writers, historical and religious, prac- 
tise the same methods and tell practically the same 
idle tales. History takes its character from the 
period of its composition. The mind is like the 
surface of the sea, which distorts objects by its 
undulations. 

Examples of extreme longevity are by no means 
purely Biblical. Old age is the only chronicle of 
others than Methuselah. All races offer instances 
innumerable ; but the Hindoos lead both in number 
and in length of age. Among these curious people 
eighty thousand years was a common age of men, 
while their priests lived over one hundred thousand 
years. King Alarka, says the Vishnu Purana^ reigned 



28 CHEIST vs, CHEISTIANITY. 

sixty-six thousand years, and he is spoken of even 
then as the " youthful monarch." 

If one looks into any of the early Pagan histo- 
rians, he finds countless old stories and traditions 
of a similar nature. It is needless to quote them. 
A few historical names do stand out in striking con- 
trast, to be sure. Herodotus, Thucydides, Zenophon, 
Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus are the only historians of 
antiquity whose works bear anything like the stamp 
of credibility ; yet each of these tells most remarkable 
stories. The heroes of Herodotus slay thousands of 
men, yes, tens of thousands. He tells of strange 
birds and beasts, dwarfs, giants, and gods, rivers as 
large as seas, enormous walls, temples, pyramids, 
obelisks, and the secrets thereon inscribed. Thu- 
cydides with his verbatim speeches, like the steno- 
graphical notes of an associated press reporter, hardly 
convinces us. This habit of putting words in the 
mouths of famous personages is common to all writers 
of antiquity. Zenophon becomes foolish over his 
dreams, omens, and prophecies. It is a good deal 
easier to prophesy than it is to narrate. He even 
finds in a sneeze a powerful omen. A great English 
historian says : ^' The nonsense of Herodotus is that 
of a baby ; the nonsense of Zenophon is that of a 
dotard." Coming to the Eoman historians, we find 
no essential difference. Livy and Sallust are by no 
means superior to the earlier Greek historians. Their 
works are full of contradictions. Anomalies and 
wonders still exist. Tacitus easily leads the Roman 
writers. " It was thought more pious and reverential 
to believe the actions of the gods than to investigate 
them," I find in the "Germania." As a portrayer 
of character he is great ; but he too has his authentic 
speeches, which were probably never delivered. He 



•TESTIMONY. 29 

is clearly a creator, and the same statemeut applies 
to the Scriptural writers. 

Nazarius, a later historian, tells of an army of war- 
riors who swung down from heaven to aid Constan- 
tine at Milvian Bridge. He describes their beauty, 
their courage, their great size, and the resplendent 
glamour of their arms. They kindly talked with the 
common soldiers, and declared that they were sent 
to aid Constantine. Just so at an earlier date a 
similar army of spectres aided Aurelian at the battle 
of Fano. So again the Greek gods used to aid their 
favorites in person. Eusebius, pillar of the Church, 
describes the glorious cross which he saw in the sky 
on one of the marches of Constantine. It was in- 
scribed with the words, "By this conquer." The 
army was somewhat surprised, and its appearance 
confirmed Constantine in his choice of faith. Euse- 
bius also finds the victories of Constantine undoubted 
evidence of his piety and inspiration. 

But the Middle Ages is the great trysting-place of 
the imagination, not necessarily because men were 
governed by it more then than earlier, but because we 
know more about this period of history than we do 
about the earlier periods. The historians commonly 
trace in unbroken connection events from Noah, or 
even Adam, down to their own times. We are told 
that Paris received its name from Priam's son, who 
fled to France after the sack of Troy» Jerusalem is 
traced from King Jebus, a great man whose identity 
succeeding generations have not been able to fix. 
Silesia comes from the prophet Elisha, and the Sile- 
sians were his direct descendants. The exact found- 
ing of Zurich is a little clouded, to be sure, but un- 
questionably it occurred in the time of Abraham and 
Sarah. Naples was founded on eggs. With consider- 



30 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

able reason it was asserted that the Tartars came from 
Tartarus, or, anyway, from hell. 

Matthew Paris, the great historian of the thir- 
teenth century, not to say of the Middle Ages, ex- 
plains clearly why the Mahometans refuse to eat pork. 
Mahomet, having gorged himself with food and drink, 
in his stupidity fell asleep on a dunghill. A herd of 
pigs attacked and suffocated the prophet while in this 
condition. Consequently his followers have ever 
since abhorred the flesh of swine. Matthew of West- 
minster explains another curious custom, that of kiss- 
ing the Pope's toe. He says that once the custom was 
merely to kiss the hand of his Holiness. But one day 
away back in early times a certain woman visiting 
Pope Leo not only kissed his hand, but, oh horrors ! 
pressed it. The holy father, seeing his danger, cut 
off the hand, and thus escaped pollution. If any 
doubted the historian's account, he was politely re- 
ferred to the Lateran, where the hand was preserved 
in its original state, uncorrupted. 

Another history — an authority, by the way, sanc- 
tioned by the Pope and recommended by one of the 
most celebrated writers of the times — gives us excel- 
lent examples. He tells us that tlie brother of Saint 
James directly incited Charlemagne to invade Spain. 
It describes how the walls of the city of Pamplona 
fell to the ground in ruins at the prayer of the invad- 
ers. A giant, Fenacute, descendant direct from Goli- 
ath, opposed the successful Charlemagne. He was a 
giant indeed. We are reminded of Dante's celebrated 
description of Nimrod, whose face was as big as 
the ball of St. Peter's. His strength was as that of 
forty men ; his face was a cubit in length, his arms 
and legs four cubits ; and his whole height was twenty 
cubits. The great champions of the victorious army 



TESTIMONY. 31 

he easily conquered ; twenty of their chosen men 
only suffered defeat at his hands, he taking them off 
to slavery under his arms just as nowadays a burly 
policeman might take two small boys off to jail. At 
length one Orlando comes forth, not he of Shak- 
spearian fame, and challenges the giant to mortal com- 
bat. In the fight which ensued, Orlando, somewhat 
disconcerted, but blessed with a happy thought, 
changes his tactics, gets into a hot theological dis- 
cussion with his valiant opponent, and secures the 
victory by getting in a telling thrust at an unguarded 
moment. This victory was of course the crowning 
triumph of Christian arms in Spain, and I think will 
long remain without a rival. 

Another great man, Comines, known to many 
through the charming novel of Scott, tells us that war 
is a mystery, a weapon of God to accomplish his 
ends. Many modern luminaries in this respect have 
followed in the wake of Comines. This same light 
made politics a branch of theology. 

But a more familiar authority may be cited, the 
great Bossuet. De Foe with all his exactness never 
equalled this great Frenchman. He knows, and knows 
he knows. He gives us the exact date when Cain 
murdered Abel, setting it at 3875 b. c. ; the Flood oc- 
curred in 2348 b. c, and Abraham was summoned to 
God's work in the year 1921 b. c. He omits Mahomet 
absolutely from his great history, mentioning dozens 
of men possessed of astounding ability, workers of 
miracles, saints, statesmen, and writers, of whom the 
world nowhere else has learned. This great French- 
man, whose funeral orations have excited the world to 
admiration, was more ignorant of the commonest af- 
fairs of his times, and of things of general impor- 
tance, than a grammar-school boy is to-day j indeed 



32 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

his real knowledge was less than that of many a street 
gamin. Such are the great historians of the Middle 
Ages. 

The theologians are worse still, if this be possible. 
Their stories easily take the palm. Omitting the 
Apocrypha, — which really has as much right to a place 
in the Bible as the Gospels, the question having been 
decided by the vote, with a small margin at that, of an 
extremely fallible ecclesiastical council, — all the theo- 
logical works extant, from the first century down to 
modern times, contain altogether the most unreason- 
able stories, truths, the world has ever seen. Pagan- 
ism, at its worst, offers no story not based on some 
reasonable ground of fact or fancy, no story that does 
not symbolize something beautiful or heroic, or gross 
and sensual. Every trivial story in the Grecian mind 
became a subject for literature, or an incentive to the 
creation of immortal works of art. This is the ex- 
planation of the incomparable admiration which we 
feel for ancient Greece. Not a discovery but adds to 
her glory, not a reflection but swells the chorus to her 
praise. Fanaticism, scholasticism, and dogmatism 
were practically unknown to her. 

The legends of these historians are utterly mean- 
ingless, stupid, and empty. Their minds ran riot. 
They were not fools, nor yet were they crazy. They 
were in a worse condition. They have not even the 
excuse of imbecility. The world has never seen such 
an example of mental barrenness, such a horde of 
learned dunces. The problems of the schoolmen 
hardly need repetition. It seems incredible that ques- 
tions like these were really and seriously argued, — 
whether Christ had digestive organs, whether the 
human race in its primal innocence was composed en- 
tirely of males, whether the Virgin Mary was a virgin 



TESTIMONY. 33 

in conception, and whether she remained so after ges- 
tation. What a pitiable heap of rubbish ! Yet this 
is the Summa Theologica, these are the mighty At- 
lases that support the burden of Christian tradition. 

Lucian, of earlier date, a presbyter of Jerusalem, 
relates a dream which he had, and its verification. In 
the silence of midnight a venerable figure stood before 
him, with a long beard, a white robe, and a golden rod. 
He announced himself as Gamaliel, and assured the 
holy presbyter that his own body, with those of his 
son Abibas and friend Nicodemus, and the famous 
Stephen, was secretly interred in a neighboring field. 
The spirit impatiently informed the holy man that it 
was time for him to be up and doing, and that he 
should not lie there helpless and useless to himself 
and friends. Other visions succeeded, and finally the 
bishops opened up the field at his request. Sure 
enough, there were the coffins of the persons mentioned, 
with the exception of his own. When that of Stephen 
came to light, the earth trembled, and a fragrant odor 
like that of paradise suffused the air, which instantly 
cured the infirmities of seventy-three of the attend- 
ants. Augustin, a bishop of the early Church, relates 
above seventy miracles that happened within two 
years in his own diocese. He omits many prodigies, 
and solemnly declares that he selected only those 
miracles publicly certified and beyond dispute. 

Is the story of the Immaculate Conception in any 
particular more reasonable or credible than the dream 
and verification given above ? Here it is in brief. 
An angel, Gabriel by name, is sent by God to Mary, 
an ignorant, simple countrywoman of Nazareth. He 
tells her that she is in great good fortune, for God has 
experienced a passion for her. He allays her fears — 
it would seem that God satisfied his passion by proxy 

3 



34 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

— by assuring her that she shall conceive a son who 
will become a famous king, acquiring a sway not less 
grand than that of his ancestor, the great David. The 
innocent maid is convinced, and replies, " Be it unto 
me according to thy word." The angel departs, and in 
due season the son is born, great indeed, but hardly 
acquiring the throne of David. Candid minds can but 
find one story as incredible as the other, with all the 
immorality against the Bible. 

Again, take examples from Luther, that champion of 
religious freedom, — for he advocated the very same 
thing that heretics to-day advocate, namely, freedom 
of interpretation of the Scriptures. He was buried in 
superstition like his age. He saw witches and devils 
and fairies ; he had visions from God ; he had tus- 
sles with the devil ; he had beatitudes with angels. 
Satan called him names, taunted him, reviled him ; 
but he gained the victory. He says the devil is proud, 
and does n't like to be laughed at. One night he heard 
a rattling in his room ; he got up and searched for the 
source of it, found nothing, concluded it was the 
devil, and muttering, " Oh, it 's you, is it ? " returned 
to bed, rolled over, and went to sleep. This was no 
laughing matter. To him it was God's truth, terrible 
and earnest. 

With all his common-sense there is a kind of para- 
doxical inconsistency about his statements. He ridi- 
cules the astrologers. How can there be anything to 
their system, he asks, since Jacob and Esau were born 
under the same star ! A monster is found in the Tiber 
with the head of an ass, the body of a man, and the 
claws of a bird. Melancthon and Luther, after search- 
ing the Bible to learn what the prodigy meant, 
conclude that it presages the fall of the papacy, and 
publish a pamphlet about it. So every prodigy means 



TESTIMONY. 35 

just what people wish it to mean. A dream or vision 
means whatever comes after it out of the ordinary line 
of events. 

Bunyan, too, tells many stories, taking care to state 
that he was eye and ear witness of what he says ; 
and these tales give striking proof of the ignorance 
and superstition of his times. One man, an alehouse- 
keeper, was possessed of a devil, and the doctors 
attempted to cure him ; and this is what they did. 
They laid him on his belly on a bench with his head 
hanging over the edge, bound him, and set a pan of 
burning coals under his mouth, first putting on some- 
thing which caused a dense smoke. They proposed 
to smoke the devil out, just as a country boy to- 
day would smoke out a woodchuck. The remedy, of 
course, only killed the victim. Again, a woman stole 
some pennies from a boy, and when charged with the 
theft wished that the ground might open and bury her 
if she touched the money. Some other children near 
by saw the ground shake, and cried to her to look out ; 
but too late, — the earth opened and swallowed her up. 
Such things were common events a century or two ago. 
King Charles of England is said to have touched a 
hundred thousand persons during his reign, and the 
testimony as to the cures effected is astonishingly 
convincing. 

There is another beautiful story told. A great 
painter, one of the masters, wished to paint a Virgin ; 
and lo ! the sainted lady herself appeared and posed 
for the artist. And this was real, for his friends 
declared that there was for months afterwards an 
aureole about his head clearly perceptible in a 
darkened room. So it is ; the imagination always has 
some foundation in fact. The artist from it paints 
a picture, the statesman inscribes a tablet of laws, 



36 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the priest fashions a theology. The imagination is 
most powerful in dark ages. Dreams always occur 
in uncertain, restless sleep. In intellectual twilight, 
when night is coming on or day is breaking, the 
imagination assumes its sway. Sceptre in hand, it 
rules its own. It dreams of gods, of demigods, of 
heroes ; it sees visions of the omnipotent, hears his 
voice, feels his gentle presence. Who has not seen 
apparitions, dreamed truths, felt the touch of God's 
own hand ? Words and ideas familiar from child- 
hood sink out of sight in our minds, just as the gold 
falls slowly to the bottom of the stream. Suddenly 
in a fit of aimless musing, we know not how, the 
great truth behind these long-forgotten words flashes 
upon us ; the water runs off, and carries with it the 
dross, leaving a shining nugget of the precious metal, 
truth. 

Sometimes it takes a more violent course, and it 
seems as if our souls were torn and bleeding. The 
enthusiast suffers internal anarchy. Paul of Tarsus, 
eager defender of the faith of his fathers, accomplice 
in the cruel murder of the gentle Stephen, guarding 
the clothes of those engaged in the terrible work, 
perchance himself casting a stone, and still eager in 
the cause of his people, finds himself on a solitary 
way to Damascus armed with the powers of an in- 
quisitor determined to hunt out and crush the grow- 
ing heresy. But with ample time for reflection on 
the lonely road, with the midday Syrian sun streaming 
down upon his heated head, with no more congenial 
company perhaps than his troubled thoughts, the 
better element so long dormant in the soul of this 
finely cultured intellectual man, disciple of Gamaliel, 
and not without the refinements of Greek literature 
and art, is roused to active operation. He begins to 



TESTIMONY. 37 

reason within himself. Reflection unravels not a few 
things hitherto a little clouded and mysterious. Per- 
chance the last dying look of Stephen, gently re- 
proachful in its forgiveness, returns to his mind, and 
connects itself with the strange stories he has heard 
of the life, death, and resurrection of the great teacher 
of the new faith. His heart is touched; hesitation 
takes the place of resolution ; cruelt}:^ softens to pity ; 
and on a sudden, behold ! there where but now was 
only limitless sky and suffocating heat, the holy Christ 
himself takes form to his dazzled eyes, his thought 
finds expression, and he hears the still small voice of 
remonstrance unheard by others, " Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou me ? " and falls to the ground self- 
vanquished as if smitten by a thunderbolt. Just so a 
famous Roman confessed that he often saw the angry 
forms of his murdered father and brother rising into 
life to threaten and upbraid him. 

These visions and voices are confined to no age or 
century. A person in the common walks of life once 
told me of his conversion. He had been deeply moved 
by exhortation to become a Christian, but was only 
thoroughly perplexed rather than convinced. Finally 
he hit upon the scheme of letting God solve the riddle 
for him, as many another has done. Of course the 
real victory was gained right here in this conclusion. 
If God would give him a sign, he would believe. 
That very night a man dressed in the ordinary cos- 
tume of the times stood at his bedside, and said, ^' I 
am the Christ, believe thou on me." This was enough 
for him. 

The imagination, even in waking hours, often en- 
lists the eyes and ears in its delusion, and persuades 
us to believe that we see spectres and hear voices 
when neither god nor devil has troubled himself 



38 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

about us. Many an old woman has seen more devils 
at noonday than Galileo ever did stars. The trouble 
is, we make our gods and devils by daylight, and see 
them in the dark. One thing is quite certain : people 
will not often see devils or gods worse than them- 
selves. Karely is the created better than the creator. 
Mistaking the devil for an ass, we believe in the 
saucer eyes of a pink-eyed bear, and take the night- 
cart for a fiery chariot when fear has affected our 
noses. 

It is entertaining enough to read a few of these old 
tales and wonders, but to run through a thousandth 
part of them would be a tiresome task. It is a hope- 
less detail of leaves without flowers and of branches 
without fruit, exhaustive to the patience, and ulti- 
mately disappointing to the curiosity of the investi- 
gator. Ever since people have depended on revelation 
from God, ever since they have made the Almighty 
speak and act, each race has made him speak and act 
in its own way and to its own liking. Princes and 
tyrants have been the ministers of heaven. The 
sceptre and the sword of God were intrusted to Mo- 
ses, to Joshua, to Gideon, to David, to the Maccabees. 
Innumerable prodigies ever occurred. The lame 
walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead 
were raised, demons were expelled, and the laws of 
nature suspended to benefit the Church. Earthquakes, 
meteors, comets, and eclipses have been given as signs 
to believers ; and again, floods and pestilence and 
tornadoes were the ministers of God's wrathful jus- 
tice. It did not seem true at first that the sun could 
shine equally on the just and the unjust, or that the 
unfortunate city overwhelmed with an earthquake or 
consumed with fire could be quite as sinless as its 
more fortunate neighbor. 



TESTIMONY. 39 

A singular instance of this old method of thought 
appeared but a short time ago in our own country. 
Soon after the horrible disaster in Pennsylvania, the 
pastor^ of one of the most famous churches in our 
metropolis felt called upon to investigate the char- 
acter of the flooded city. He concluded, as he told 
his people, that the inhabitants of Johnstown were 
no worse than other people, and that therefore the 
flood could not have been a judgment from God. 
And this is at the very end of the nineteenth century ! 
There are times when one cannot help feeling ashamed 
of his species. 

To the common mind of the past, miracles were not 
only possible but probable. They were of common 
occurrence. There were none who had not seen them. 
When one was related, it caused no surprise. People 
believed it with quite as ready faith as if only a 
shower were mentioned, or a frost, or a fever. If 
cattle died, it was because the devil possessed them, 
or the eye of a witch had beheld them. It is useless 
to ask why these stories were not denied. Such was 
the popular belief. No one questioned it, save now 
and then a speculative heretic in the seclusion of his 
closet ; and his penalty was death, and descent to pos- 
terity as a rogue, a scourge, an imp of the devil, an 
atheist steeped in crime, — epithets not altogether 
unfamiliar to modern ears. Why, these same meth- 
ods of judgment pervaded the whole legal system of 
ages, as is manifest in ordeals and trials of strength. 
The king on the throne, the judge on the bench, the 
statesman in the council, and the peasant in the field 
interpreted literally by such rules the things which 
they experienced or heard. The oath of two or three 
witnesses meant sure death as a sorcerer. In Salem, 
1 Dr. Talmage, 1889. 



40 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

we of this country saw this very process consummated 
before the legal tribunal of the Colony. There is 
nothing strange or peculiar in Biblical narrative. The 
same wonders stand in the most profane works, so 
considered. 

Nor are the Scriptures unique in their prophecies. 
These have been with all peoples, for all purposes, in 
all times. If the divine archer's arrow sped within 
a thousand miles of the mark, an applauding people 
praised his skill, and swore it pierced the target dead 
in the centre. Divinity is not the sole privilege of 
one man. Prophecy is the monopoly of no nation or 
sect. Virgil, as well as Isaiah, foretold the immacu- 
late conception, the birth of the godlike Christ, who 
should suffer for the sins of the world. And no 
prophecy was ever more accurate than Lord Chester- 
field's prognostication of the French Eevolution. 

Stories like those mentioned above are not put into 
men's minds as revelations from God; they are, 
rather, startling revelations or manifestations of ig- 
norance. They were attributed to God, because it was 
impossible to explain them otherwise. Just as the 
Pagans constructed their different gods out of the 
various natural phenomena which they could not 
understand, so the Hebrews, and later the Christians, 
attributed to their god whatever was incomprehen- 
sible to them. This became customary ; and when- 
ever anything out of the ordinary line of events 
happened, people said, "Lo! it is God," or, "Saints 
defend us ! it is the devil," without another thought. 
Bitter experience has taught us that the iron bands of 
custom are hard to break. 

The Middle Ages, as a whole, present in many re- 
spects the most melancholy spectacle of any period in 
human history. The scientific spirit was quenched. 



TESTIMONY. 41 

and after smouldering awhile seemed utterly to die 
away. We have to look through and beyond a vast, 
silent shadow to perceive the quite respectable work 
of the ancient Pagans. Thus human progress seems 
to ebb and flow, and the tide seems to have gone 
away down below low-water mark during this period. 
Standing in the middle of the sixteenth century and 
looking backwards, one beholds only a barren, sandy 
desert, in which hardly a green thing, a leaf, not to 
say a flower, appears to intercept the vision to the 
fruitful fields beyond. 

The truth is, that in all those ages of faith credu- 
lity has stood for reason, and submission for loyalty. 
Whenever men have known little they have imagined 
much. Failing to comprehend common things, it is 
natural that they should fear the uncommon. Ven- 
eration and worship and submission are ever the 
offspring of wonder and fear. And the indirect re- 
sult of all this is worse than the direct result. A 
credulous rather than a critical spirit is formed, a 
disposition to refer all uncommon or striking events 
to supernatural causes. Wonder at it if you will, 
believe it you must, it has taken all those years, 
from primal man to the present, to this very moment 
when I write, to remove the taint of superstition 
from the common affairs of life, — mark me, our daily 
work, not our weekly worship or our profounder re- 
flections; and even to-day the frequency and power 
of superstitious influence, made manifest from time to 
time, compels the lamentable confession that the vic- 
tory is not yet altogether won. 

The effect that custom and environment have had 
upon Christian testimony has been indicated quite 
sufficiently, and of course it is clear that this effect in 
ages of ignorance is much increased. Theologians 



42 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

strenuously maintain that if these stories are not true, 
the prophets and the faithful generally who told them 
are a set of most shameful impostors. But this is an 
idle statement, and wholly unreasonable. The only 
imposition these men and their contemporaries exer- 
cised was self-imposition. Their only crime, if it be 
such, was ignorance. True, there may have been, 
and doubtless were, individual cases of wilful lying ; 
but such probably were the exception rather than the 
rule, especially in earlier days. It is not that these 
men alone believed and saw miracles ; everybody ex- 
perienced and believed them. When witches were 
burned in Scotland years ago, no one protested, be- 
cause all believed the punishment just. We have 
now but to examine the two remaining corrupters of 
testimony, enthusiasm and prejudice. 

Eeligious wars have ever been atrocious. The in- 
fluence of enthusiasm or excessive zeal is remarkably 
potent in religious affairs. One has but to enter a 
country church during a revival to be convinced of 
this fact. Eeligious truth appeals more to the heart 
than to the head. Such influences are almost invari- 
ably intense. It is all but a common thing to-day at 
country revivals to see men, women, and children in- 
discriminately grovelling in the dirt, groaning and 
moaning over their sins. I have seen such sights 
myself, where the feelings of simple country people 
were so intensely excited by a blatant, illogical, and 
unreasonable evangelist as to render them utterly 
foolish and irresponsible for their actions. I have 
seen a Salvationist become so intensely affected while 
in prayer as to fall to the ground foaming at the 
mouth, all the while raging and uttering incoherent 
cries and confused mutterings ; and the audience 
deemed it a spiritual sight. There is considerable 



TESTIMONY. 43 

evidence in the New Testament to raise the presump- 
tion that the disciples were at times likewise aifected. 
The gift of tongue^ is suggestive, as well as the charge 
of drunkenness which was brought against them. 

In considering this question of the effect of enthu- 
siasm, it must be kept constantly in mind that Chris- 
tian evidence is for the most part that of ignorant 
uien in the lowest conditions of life. Was not the 
kingdom of heaven promised to the poor in spirit 
especially ? To the common mind the poor in spirit 
means the poor in worldly goods. Minds afflicted by 
misfortune, suffering from infirmity, chafed by the 
contempt of others, readily entertain hopes and sug- 
gestions of future happiness. The fortunate, on the 
contrary, are quite well satisfied with this world. It 
is well known that the learned men of the a]30stolic 
era viewed with supreme contempt the ideas advanced 
by the zealous followers of Christ. They had not the 
nobility and attractiveness of their great master. 
The philosophers laughed at their wonderful stories, 
and considered them unworthy of refutation. It may 
be a fair presumption that these early zealots occupied 
the same position of pitying contempt in the minds 
of the learned and well-to-do Pagans of that period 
that the Salvation Army holds to-day in the opinion 
of the upper classes of society. Certain it is they 
exercised the same spiritual recklessness and prac- 
tised the same general ceremonies as their modern 
imitators. Paul is, to be sure, an exception. He was 
not ignorant, yet whether siding with or against 
Christ he was pre-eminently a zealot. The claims of 
Christianity exhibit forcibly this characteristic. 

Gibbon gives a pointed example of the absurdity of 
Scriptural claims. He recalls the fact that the pre- 
ternatural darkness mentioned in the Bible, which 



44 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

covered the whole earth, for the space of three hours 
at the death of Christ, — an event which would natu- 
rally excite the Avonder and curiosity of all men, — 
passed utterly without the notice of hundreds of 
learned men eager to discover and investigate just 
such phenomena. Neither Seneca nor Pliny, who 
mention innumerable other natural phenomena, as 
earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, noticed 
this remarkable event, or even hints that he ever 
heard of it. We may go even farther. While that 
great sacrifice on Calvary was scarcely consummated 
by the resurrection and crowned by the glorious as- 
cension, while the importance of this great victory 
over death was scarcely comprehended by the faithful, 
the Docetes declared that the theory of the immacu- 
late conception was false, and asserted that Christ 
sprang into perfect manhood on the banks of the Jor- 
dan ; that the enraged Jews had vented their spite 
on a phantom Christ ; and that his followers ex- 
tended their credulity to a visionary resurrection 
and ascension. 

This is sure : the disciples, carried away by the 
lofty principles of their great master, found all else 
utterly contemptible. And when their noble teacher 
was no more, their enthusiasm, freed from its re- 
straint, carried them to astonishing extremes. During 
the life of the master even, their zeal oftentimes was 
manifested. Indeed, one of Christ's greatest difficul- 
ties was to curb the fiery ardor of his followers. 
After his death all this pent-up energy burst forth 
like an avalanche, and left that which but yesterday 
was reasonable order and prosperity a hopeless en- 
tanglement of chaotic confusion. How little faith we 
should place in a history of the Republican party 
written by an ardent Republican ! Yet political zeal 



TESTIMONY. 45 

never has led men to extremes common to religious 
enthusiasts. 

In this apostolic worship affection did not stay to 
scrutinize. A fine thought passes easily from the pen, 
and serves to glorify a hero though deviating from 
the truth. ISTothing too wonderful could be related ; 
no absurdity could be too apparent. Martja-dom was 
sought. Crowds of the faithful forced their way into 
the coui'ts of justice, and extorted from the judges sen- 
tences of execution against themselves. The glory of 
martyrdom was easy to win. They forced travellers 
to strike them dead, threatening mortal punishmeut 
if they refused. Failing to secure envied death at 
the hands of another, in the presence of crowds of 
their friends many plunged headlong from lofty 
cliffs. ]S"umerous precipices were famous for the 
number of martyrs who had leaped from their 
heights. Each new disaster became an infallible in- 
dication of an expiring world. Men sought to get 
out of the world before the last day of conflagra- 
tion should overwhelm them. They provoked and 
irritated the wild beasts let loose upon them ; they 
taunted their executioners ; they eagerly burst from 
their attendants, and leaped into the flames prepared 
for them, and shouted for joy in torture. " Unhappy 
men," says Antoninus, " if you are thus weary of your 
lives, is it so difficult for you to find ropes and 
precipices ? " 

Those who were inclined to be sober were carried 
away by the enthusiasm of their associates. But this 
could not continue long. A reaction came. Personal 
interest became a source of belief and practice. People 
who had scorned an ignorant, proscribed sect soon 
learned to esteem a religion embraced by a great em- 
peror and a civilized and powerful empire. People are 



46 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

governed chiefly by names. Imitation is all-powerful. 
Later the new sect became rent with disputes, rivalry, 
and jealousy. The enmity and bitterness of the Chris- 
tians towards each other equalled the fury of wild 
beasts. The peaceful serenity of heaven became a 
turbulent tempest of hell. 

It is easy to bring to mind an infinite number of 
illustrations of this despotic sway of zeal aside from 
religious lines. It is the cause of hero-worship. It 
magnifies virtues and minimizes faults ; or it may 
take the opposite turn, and intensify slight failings, 
until we have an atrocious, horrifying example of de- 
praved humanity. A number of great historical char- 
acters have borne both effects. Napoleon presents to 
many minds a perfect incarnation of all that is bad in 
humanity. He is called the cruel, vindictive, tyran- 
nical, treacherous, lying scourge of Europe ; while to 
the minds of many more he appears almost faultless, 
— a hero, a demigod. We Americans idealize our own 
Washington. We are sure he never told a lie or 
uttered a curse ; and when his correspondence is 
brought to light as evidence of his humanity, and 
historians dare assert that he had faults, we are ready 
to denounce them all as slanderers of the fair fame of 
our hero, without fear and without reproach. 

Another striking example of the tendency of this 
affectionate zeal appears in the current belief in the 
cruel imprisonment of John Bunyan. His place of 
confinement is characterized as a den where there was 
not room for exercise even, — a dreary dungeon vault, 
cold, damp, and clammy. A little chink in the wall 
does admit a solitary beam of sickly sunlight ; but this 
one scant ray is cheerless, revealing only a sad abode 
of woe. The prisoner is pale and wan, too weak to 
earn his bread, too sick to eat it. A group of pale, 



TESTIMONY. 47 

feeble children, and a wife worn down to the very 
brink of the grave with care, combine to increase his 
suffering. All this, endured for ten long years, affords 
a picture of woe that makes the heart sick. Such is 
the common account of Bunyan's imprisonment, and 
the one that obtains general belief. Full-page cuts 
in Sunday-school papers represent the scene. I have 
in mind the one I saw in childhood, agreeing well 
with the historian's description given above. And 
yet this picture is absurdly false. Bunyan's impris- 
onment during its entire duration was little more 
than formal. Friends were constantly admitted to 
him ; even strangers, hearing of his fame, were at- 
tracted to him. He was even permitted at times to 
preach to his fellow-prisoners and outsiders. During 
a portion of the term he spent his nights away from 
the prison with his family, and his jailer told him he 
might go out when he pleased. Nominally in con- 
finement, he attended meetings away. In poverty he 
never was, if the most hearty assistance of many firm 
friends, in no way forbidden, be not considered pov- 
erty. And after his trivial confinement, not a hun- 
dredth part so severe punishment as many greater 
men have suffered, he became a man of considerable 
property. 

But oftentimes it is more than mere blindness of 
affection that clouds such testimony. First, there is 
a slight coloring of events. Little facts are concealed 
or blurred, and then actual misrepresentation and 
wilful lying follow. That this last element entered 
into religious testimony during the early centuries, 
and finally pervaded it in the Middle Ages and later, 
is unquestionable. Involuntary misrepresentation we 
can easily excuse, but wilful, premeditated, and con- 
stant lying, though pardonable, becomes fixed in our 



48 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

memories. Every religion, every sect, has favored in- 
vestigation so long as investigation favored its ends. 
Every one has also denounced it when it was deemed 
dangerous to religious purpose. People admire rea- 
son favorable to themselves. When the argument 
leans our way, it is easy to cry, "Another Daniel come 
to judgment ! '^ Sects do not openly and honestly 
bring forward their charges ; they are generally too 
shrewdly consistent for this. No persuasion ever 
denounced education, — never ; only damnable heresy. 
Education, they insist, is grand ; only they quite as 
strongly insist that it is for them to define education. 
They cannot permit individuals to outstrip them ; 
they restrain the very freedom which they represent. 
How often has the Church expelled those who would 
do her most honor ! Wrangling over the Bible they 
call understanding it. The subterfuges of the wolf in 
-^sop's famous fable are as nothing in comparison to 
the artful contrivances on which different sects have 
depended. 

Prejudice is the most unworthy corrupter of testi- 
mony, withal so common as to be quite respectable. 
Each faction tells the story in its own way, and in- 
sists that all the rest are wrong. Anything is good 
and credible as long as it tends towards what it calls 
truth ; everything is false which suggests or intimates 
its falsity. Thus we have a peculiar standard of truth. 
The question seems to be, not what are the facts, but 
how will they affect our creed. " Heresy, blasphemy, 
lies ! " says the Protestant ; and an eminent modern 
Catholic replies : " Protestant tradition is based on ly- 
ing, — bold, wholesale, unscrupulous lying." The truth, 
without doubt, at present lies chiefly outside of both. 

In 1378, owing to a faction in the Church of Eome, 
Europe beheld the spectacle of two rival Popes, each 



TESTIMONY. 49 

claiming to be the sole infallible head of the Church, 
and denouncing the other as a pretender. As a natu- 
ral consequence people began to question the claims 
and infallibility of both. Just so the continued rivalry 
and recrimination of Protestant sects has probably 
been the chief cause of modern scepticism. People 
reason that all cannot be right, conclude that all are 
wrong, and construct another hypothesis of their own, 
which in turn generally becomes another dogma. 

The Jesuits, perhaps the most noted example of 
intolerant bigotry and tyranny, afford a good illus- 
tration of this sect-prejudice. When this great sect 
was originated, it rendered inestimable service to civi- 
lization. One of its principal features was its well- 
directed activity and energy in establishing a system 
of education. One of the greatest of modern histori- 
ans says that no university existed at the time whose 
scheme of instruction was so comprehensive as theirs, 
and none displayed such skill in teaching. Early 
Jesuitism was a firm ally of science and literature, 
and welcomed speculation. But in the inevitable pro- 
gress of society Jesuitism was gradually left behind, 
owing somewhat, however, to the changed spirit of 
its followers. In the sixteenth century it was leading 
the age ; two centuries later it was lagging behind. 
To-day that is a stumbling-block which but yesterday 
was an eager guide. The great- souled teachers of 
1650 became the bigoted inquisitors of 1750. They 
favored education as long as they thought that by 
it they could subjugate conscience; and when they 
saw their error they did not change their purpose, — 
they concealed it. They found that the fault lay with 
an obstinate, stiff-necked generation. Education and 
knowledge became heresy when ecclesiastical authority 
began to decline through their influence. And this 

4 



50 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

has been, in brief, the history of every sect — and sects 
are the outward manifestations of religion — which 
down to this day the world has seen. 

From the earliest times the effect of prejudice was 
apparent among the Christians. The acquisition of 
knowledge, the exercise of reason and fancy, the 
practice of cheerful games, were all frowned upon by 
the early Christians as well as by the later Puritans. 
All knowledge that dealt with things not in accord- 
ance with their ideas of salvation was carnal ; all 
language that told not of spiritual affairs was a gross 
abuse of the gift of speech ; worldly delight was sin. 
Pleasure indicated the abuse of sensation. Mortifica- 
tion of the flesh was divine. If the eye lingered over 
beautiful paintings, it trespassed ; if the ear became 
ravished with harmony, it offended. Pride and sen- 
suality only sought gayety and magnificence. Piety 
despised the earth and its affairs. Whoso would fol- 
low Christ must hate the world. Should the layman 
repose on a downy pillow when the prophet's head 
rested on a stone ? God forbid ! Did not the holy 
Master want even a stone on which to lay his head ? 
The Christian had one certainty, sin, and one doubt, 
salvation. 

Despite the extreme frequency of miracles for the 
most trivial reasons, despite the statement that mira- 
cles were given to aid conviction, when a noble 
.Grecian promised his allegiance to the new sect if 
he could be gratified with the sight of a single person 
who had been raised from the dead, his reasonable 
offer was rejected. A whole body of philosophers 
made a standing offer of their allegiance, if they 
might be convinced by a single resurrection from the 
dead. It was of course refused. Just so modern 
spiritualism must work in the dark. 



TESTIMONY. 51 

The Christians scorned the Pagans. Salvation was 
for the Jew, not for the Gentile. They never turned 
the leaves of a Pagan author without fear and trem- 
bling. The contagion of Pagan literature was deadly 
sin. Thus they superseded the original masterpieces 
by their miserable compilations. They copied from 
one another the most lamentable nonsense. A Chris- 
tian tradition was infallible ; a Pagan history was 
unquestionably a lie. The Middle Ages recognized 
only two duties, — to worship the king and to revere 
the Church. Literature was not only frowned upon, 
but forbidden and suppressed. The extent of this 
suppression can hardly be realized or appreciated. 
The accusations are well known, the punishments are 
familiar. Torture was common, imprisonment was 
general, and other penalties — from the imposition 
of heavy fines to banishment — were universal, I 
should be glad to learn the name of a single author, 
scientific, speculative, historical, or literary, whose 
works are known and valued to-day, who did not 
during some period of his life suffer one or more 
of the penalties mentioned. The Church held abso- 
lute sway. The proudest monarchs humbled them- 
selves before the popes, and the people cringed before 
a tyrannical priesthood. Henry IV. was the first 
king who dared to change his faith on the ground 
of political expediency. We are familiar with his 
penalty. The head of the Holy Koman Empire, the 
successor of the Caesars and of Charlemagne, stand- 
ing for three successive days in sackcloth and bare- 
footed in the snow of the courtyard to Gregory's 
palace at Canossa, a rejected penitent, is one of the 
strangest spectacles history presents. 

This suppression of heresy extended thus from the 
mightiest king to the humblest peasant, and embraced 



52 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

all orders of society. Christian testimony from first 
to last consists almost solely of the statements of 
friends of the cause. Eusebius himself, the greatest 
of the early historians, admits that he has suppressed 
whatever could tend to the disgrace of Christianity, re- 
lating all that would redound to its glory. The later 
historians blindly copied from their predecessors, 
and into their compilations crowded all the faults, 
omitting the slight virtues, of their authorities, as is 
usual in such cases. This method, usual with theo- 
logians and suitable to their purpose, is fatal to 
knowledge. Sects, forgetting the right of individual 
judgment to which they owe their own existence, 
become zealous to protect the innocent from error, 
and accordingly forbid any work to be published with- 
out ecclesiastical sanction. Literature thus guarded 
assumes the characteristics of its masters. The 
clergy, generally speaking, have at all times concen- 
trated their energy upon the enforcement of belief 
rather than the encouragement of inquiry, and the 
spirit of their teachings reveals the habits of their 
profession. Surrounded by all these inj3.uences, the 
wonder is, not that prodigies are related, but that 
any resisted the excesses and rejected the supersti- 
tions of the times. The prevailing belief in wonders 
so common, in stories and legends so mysterious, and 
in superstitions so unreasonable, is not surprising. 
The remarkable fact is that a few disbelieved, and 
it is almost astounding that any dared to express or 
admit their disbelief. 

All these old descriptions of miracles and omens, 
prodigies and wonders, are far from convincing to 
our times. If people do not reject them, they still 
do not accept them. All the new creeds that have 
risen into being, every year, every month, to explain 



TESTIMONY. 63 

■unintelligible mysteries, really affect us but little. 
Our calmer reason rejects these idle theories of the 
past. We conclude that the ancient mind, like a 
child that always remains an infant from too close 
confinement and too constant guidance, fettered by 
the prejudices and customs of the times, unable to 
expand through its own efforts or attain respectable 
greatness, relapsed into a state of helpless mediocrity, 
and what is worse, became perfectly content and even 
proud of its own stupidity. 

Against all this superstition what can prevail ? 
There is but one thing, knowledge, — carnal knowl- 
edge, if bigots please. The devil in Eden was right : 
there is something divine in knowledge ; there must 
be something divine in it to make men strive so for 
it, and treasure it so highly when acquired. Every 
institution is the effect of public opinion ; its estab- 
lishment is an open announcement of that opinion. 
Never was any established institution changed but by 
changing the ideas behind it. Education is the only 
weapon which can destroy superstition. When men 
are ignorant, they are superstitious. If you seek to 
restrain the superstition without removing the igno- 
rance, you attempt an impossibility. The form may 
be changed, but the spirit remains. It is like re- 
moving the warning rattle, and leaving the serpent 
his deadly sting. It is idle to remove superstition 
by removing the symptoms by which it is known. 
Every active institution is a representative of its era, 
a mirror in which the age may behold itself. The 
dormant institutions of the past are pictures only, 
which tell the story of the past with greater or less 
accuracy. 

The longest and darkest night finally yields to 
day. We find modern generations questioning opin- 



54 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ions which, have withstood the test of ages. Doubt 
springs up everywhere. Proof is demanded. The 
clergy no longer occupy a position of pre-eminence. 
Great progress was that, — the bigot became a 
hypocrite ! 

If much is studied, much is understood. Ecclesias- 
tical instruction has passed ; ecclesiastical threats no 
longer terrify. We no longer assume the truth of 
religious and moral ideas ; nor do we care to be the 
borrowers of antiquity. The constant, laborious ac- 
tivity of man has made us what we are ; not gods nor 
angels, not prophecies nor prayers. While we rever- 
ence our great leaders, let us not forget the labors of 
the masses. We conclude that divinity existing apart 
from humanity reveals few things to humanity. In 
our syllogisms we do not assume the major premises. 
The ancient assumed supernatural communication ; 
we question it. The Christian says his theology is 
a revelation from God ; the Jews say theirs was 
given to Moses by God in person ; the Turks say 
theirs was conveyed to them by an angel from 
heaven ; the Persians say Zoroaster went to heaven 
to get theirs : each of these peoples has declared the 
beliefs of the rest false, and to-day the educated of 
all peoples conclude that all are false, while recogniz- 
ing much truth in all. While the heavenly bodies are 
gods and angels, while Bootes literally drives his 
herds to pasture in the skies, while the stars are 
prizes in the strife of the gods, there can be no as- 
tronomy. As long as people listen to the dispute of 
Michael and the devil over the body of Moses, there 
is no likelihood of their questioning the existence and 
inspiration of the prophet. 

But we have learned that our religion depends upon 
ourselves. Established religion is not the cause, it is 



TESTIMONY. 55 

the effect, of civilization. A highly educated people 
does not accept an absurd religion. Nations change 
their religions ; but no growing, intellectual nation 
ever adopted a degraded and unreasonable religion. 
While a good religion will aid civilization, jet it is 
evident that the civilization must be superior, else it 
would never have accepted the new or perceived that 
the old faith was bad. Stationary races have station- 
ary religions, while progressive races are constantly 
modifying their religious beliefs. Ignorance loves 
the marvellous. Was there ever a child but loved a 
fairy tale ? 

Simple faith would never have made America what 
it is to-day. Our ancestors had faith in the largest 
extent in their own work. He was a wi^e architect 
who replied to the clergyman's complaint of the neg- 
lect of God in that a defective arch in his church had 
broken : '^ The Almighty will never hold up an arch 
that is not built on scientific principles ; and one that 
is does n't need his assistance." 

Knowledge first, then, and religion afterwards ; or 
rather in knowledge we have religion. The soil will 
never quicken seed unless it is ready for it ; so an 
ignorant people will never accept an advanced faith, 
— only one full of marvels, one which finds a god be- 
hind every trivial occurrence. The religion is not to 
blame ; it is the fault of the people who originate and 
believe its absurdities. 

Despite the millions of dollars and hundreds of 
lives that have been sacrificed in supporting denomi- 
national missions in heathen lands among barbarous 
people, not a single permanent Christian colony can 
be cited. Temporary conversions and professions of 
faith do result, but experience shows that these re- 
sults have never been permanent. If the field is 



56 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

abandoned, the people relapse into their old faith. 
Look where you will the whole world over, no per- 
manent advance has ever been made by any kind of 
religious instruction, pure and simple. Wherever 
schools have been established, and reading and arith- 
metic taught, improvement has never failed. Wisely 
did our forefathers build our government on the solid 
foundation of the school-house and the town-meeting. 
The heathen adopt only the faults of the new faith 
taught them. They may fill the rude chapels, they 
may submit with their families to baptism, they may 
offer prayer to the new god ; but this is only the sub- 
stitution of one superstition for another. They bend 
their knees as to the old idols, they superstitiously 
submit to ecclesiastical rites, they flock to the chapel 
as they did to the bank of the river. Rituals and 
ceremonies are plainly seen and quickly learned ; but 
these are superficial. The real meaning lies deeper, 
and only too often escapes the notice of the teachers 
themselves. 

The Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt afford 
a striking example of this fact. A barbarous people, 
influenced by Paganism as they were, they could not 
master the idea of one god. They craved for won- 
ders. They were continually recurring to their old 
faith. The punishments related in the Scriptures 
had no effect upon them. Anon they bowed down 
before the goldeu calf, they worshipped the brazen 
serpent. The descendants of these people are no 
longer influenced by the old superstition. The pillar 
of cloud by day has vanished like mist before the 
morning sun ; the pillar of Are by night is quenched ; 
the great law -giver has abandoned the summit of 
Sinai, and his voice no longer rolls in thunder over 
the cliffs of Horeb. Why is this ? Simply because 



TESTIMONY. 57 

these people like others have changed, and the old 
faith fails to satisfy their minds. The great God is 
in the world as much as *he ever was, but their idea 
of him has changed. Eeligious doctrine has nowhere 
produced a permanent effect upon people unless pre- 
ceded by intellectual advancement. Ignorance is infi- 
nite belief and infinitesimal knowledge. 

It is difficult for the ordinary reader of the present 
to appreciate the ignorance of the past. Few people 
realize what scepticism has done for mankind. Doubt 
is -the mother of reason and thought. Certainty 
never asks questions. Natural-born slaves rarely 
think of freedom. As long as men know that the only 
true religion is their own, and are sure that all who 
are unfortunate enough to die in other opinions are 
doomed to eternal punishment, there is no hope of 
religious progress. But when they realize that reli- 
gion is quite as much a matter of reason as of faith, 
the thought also follows that human reason is not 
infallible. 

Is the Bible the worse for being understood ? Does 
it lose by being proved human ? Far from it. Its 
beauty and power are but increased, portraying hu- 
manity on moral lines striving manfully to work out 
its own salvation. Believe the Bible as the inspired 
Word of God or not, as you please, but at your peril 
accept and believe the testimony of universal pro- 
gress. This is the eternal Bible and Word of God. 
To disbelieve this is infidelity, — greatest to others 
and self, least to God. 

We must derive our beliefs from ourselves, not from 
tradition or imitation. A revelation cannot come at 
second hand. Every man must think for himself, if 
he would be enlightened. Others cannot do this for 
us ; if they do, we are really as ignorant as ever. We 



58 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

cannot ride to wisdom. Moral principle speaks for 
itself, and always will. The principles of geometry 
are always provable. It is nonsense to quarrel over 
what is not so. We must not judge what we fail to 
comprehend, nor submit to the rule of mere words 
and names, slaves to fashion and form. Determining 
to examine our belief for ourselves, we find that ec- 
clesiastics have not only deceived us, but themselves 
as well. 

I repeat, the present is not an age of superstition. 
A man is valued to-day according to his knowledge. 
The greatest men of the Middle Ages knew but little, 
and can teach us little or nothing. People generally 
are not so cultured as the best of the past, but they 
are vastly more enlightened. Written words bear no 
evidence of being other than human. When we say 
they are divine, we throw up all reason and progress 
for a bauble. ISTo religion will stand much longer 
among a civilized people that is based on the super- 
natural. The moral truths of any religion, ancient or 
modern, are for no single age, but for all time. The 
time has never been when truth was a lie. Fully ap- 
preciating that our present condition, social, intel- 
lectual, and moral, is the natural result, pure and 
simple, of all that has happened in the past, and that 
the admission of any miraculous influence would 
render uncertain all that we are and hope to be, — in 
short, understanding ourselves and our growth, a fu- 
ture radiant with reasonable hope stretches out before 
us. The very fact that we are in the position in which 
we find ourselves at pr'^sent, with great opportunities, 
wonderful prosperity, well advanced in education, and 
best of all, in a frame of mind open to conviction, 
ready to learn and willing, yes, eager to use what we 
learn, is the best possible proof that our progress has 



TESTIMONY. 59 

been the result of one simple, constant principle not 
subject to outside interruption. 

Whoever asserts a miracle must prove it, and that 
conclusively. On him who denies the unerring reg- 
ularity of natural law rests the burden of proof. No 
longer can people be damned any more than hanged 
by any preponderance of evidence. The evidence 
must be beyond reasonable doubt. We reject all an- 
cient evidence of supernatural interference. It is the 
invention of superstition ; it is the inheritance of 
ignorance. Its acceptance indicates intellectual stag- 
nation, and the remarkable inveteracy of custom and 
prejudice. If nothing else, epitaphs on tombstones 
teach us that sincerity is not always truth. The 
apostle Thomas disbelieved, and claimed the oppor- 
tunity of personal contact and observation. The age 
is simply following in his footsteps. It may be fool- 
ish to question certain events of history, but who 
shall call it sinful ? It was the great God himself, 
according to Christian testimony, who first cried, 
''Let there be Light." 



60 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 



II. 

CHRIST. 

Sum, non sequor. (I lead, I do not follow.) 

" A RE yon also of Galilee ? '' queried the inquisi- 
/V tors of Nicodemus. " Search and look, for out 
of Galilee arises no prophet." No, one greater than 
a prophet arises from Galilee. Christ is a greater 
man than he is represented to have been. The 
prophets have been ; I am. I lead ; I do not follow. 
Tradition is of the past. 

The subject of these remarks presents a unique 
figure, and plays a singular part in the civilization 
of the world. Concerning the incidents of the life 
of Jesus, the Christ so-called, perhaps quite as little 
is known as of Socrates. In their different fields of 
action each did much the same work, and indeed 
each suffered much the same fate. Neither was 
appreciated or understood by his own contemporaries. 
Both subsequently reached the highest glory of man. 
One was naturally the precursor of the other. Christ 
— for we shall apply to him the name which the world 
has given — is probably better understood at present 
among men in general than he ever has been from 
the day of his birth. There is a good deal of truth 
in the remark of Thoreau, that a Christian cannot 
appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of 
Christ. The real Biblical Christian, however, is by 
no means so common as he once was. 



CHRIST. 61 

Poets, religions, passions, and women, says a noted 
German novelist, live three ages : first, we despise 
them ; then our contempt changes to deification ; 
and finally, after a long time, we honor them. The 
statement well applies to men of genius gene- 
rally. A moment's thought will convince one of 
its truth. Genius is always difficult to understand. 
" If truth you tell, all fear, none aid, and few 
understand." Says Kepler on his death-bed : " But 
one man ever understood me ; " and then he added 
the painful reflection, "and he did n't." Wisdom 
beyond the masses, says Euripides, is always flouted 
at ; the rabble hoot and call it nonsense. Genius 
is above common talent, and for this very reason 
cannot be understood by it. Furthermore, it is 
always hated. We admire it, we bow to it, yet 
we hate it. Somebody has said a genius is an 
accused man. He is crowned, but generally with 
thorns. 

He who raises himself to the highest in anything 
common to humanity incurs the penalty of a solitary 
life, a life rather from within than from without. 
This retirement is a conspicuous characteristic. Of 
course it is clear that great result requires great 
work, and great work requires seclusion. But this 
characteristic seclusion is more than retirement to 
arduous work or profound reflection. It has a more 
positive element. It is by no means one of the mere 
incidents to hard work. It seems to be one of the 
elements, almost, of genius. When Seneca said that 
he always felt himself less a man after entering 
society than before, he did not mean merely a cynical 
aphorism, though it was dangerously near the verge 
of it. Every genius, without regard to his special 
calling, has positively sought retirement ; oftentimes 



62 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

this withdrawal from society has been some kind 
of communion with Nature. 

These three characteristics will aid our judgment 
in its conclusions with regard to this particular 
genius under consideration, one of the greatest the 
world has ever seen. I say one of the greatest 
advisedly, for supremacy is equality. I cannot call 
Christ greater than Michael Angelo, Phidias, or 
Shakspeare. Genius has a dynasty of its own. It 
is the only successful kind of communism known. 

We of this age find it doubly difficult to judge this 
great man, because we have nothing absolutely his 
own from which to infer. In judging Shakspeare, 
whether we deem that individual to be Bacon or not, 
is of no consequence ; whoever he was, his great char- 
acter appears with absolute certainty in his own au- 
thentic writings. We find Michael Angelo's genius 
in his own paintings. But in judging Christ w^e 
have no such authentic reference. Everything de- 
pends upon others in the latter instance ; in the 
former instances nothing depends upon others. 

This enhanced difficulty, then, is apparent. It 
may be said that we have Christ's own sermons and 
conversations ; but it must be borne in mind that 
these are but reports, all made probably years after 
they were given orally. Furthermore, these sermons 
themselves are very short, and far from numerous. 
Considering the New Testament a volume of evi- 
dence as to Christ's character and work, the great 
bulk of it makes no pretence of being his own 
words ; this claim is made by but very few pages. 
Example is better than statement : a half-dozen ig- 
norant men in the lowest walks of life become deeply 
interested in an individual, and after hearing him 
speak, together, or each separately, conclude to set 



CHRIST. 63 

down what they have heard. It is plain that little 
of the report will be verbatim. Also it is evident 
that if the person in whom they are interested is 
profound, often giving a long sermon in a short sen- 
tence, much will not have been comprehended. And 
the omission of a few of these little clauses, not 
understood and so not deemed essential, may change 
the entire meaning, or misdirect the underlying 
spirit. When one considers that our account of 
these events was written not only years after their 
occurrence, but in a language not understood by the 
people among whom they really transpired, who can 
attempt accurately to number or designate the 
errors ? 

Again these accounts may have been created largely 
from qualities and sentiments long familiar, as it is 
generally thought Tacitus and Thucydides were in 
the habit of doing. This evidence is like any other 
testimony, to be taken for what it is worth. Each 
individual constitutes a jury to examine into the 
facts and render a verdict, and this is exactly what 
is attempted in this chapter. We are forced to use 
our judgment in the daily affairs of life. A negative 
and an affirmative cannot be true of the same state- 
ment ; and when testimony contains such qualities, we 
reject one or the other, or parts of both, according 
as it satisfies our judgment. The supernatural, of 
course, is rejected altogether. I do not think it 
worth more consideration than it has had. Indeed 
I am a little ashamed to feel the necessit}^ of its con- 
sideration at all in the opening chapter. 

Deification has lowered Christ, as it has lowered 
every other great man who has been so unfortunate 
as to have it thrust upon him. It was the custom 
among the Greeks and Romans to deify their heroes, 



64 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

and it is a curious fact that they always made worse 
gods than men. The Christians did the same with 
Christ. Deification among Christians only made men 
worse. Falsehood is always inferior to truth. It 
seems to me quite easy to separate the essentials of 
Christ's teachings from the weak, ineffectual attempts 
of his followers at interpretation and elucidation. 
The ineffaceable impress of genius seems apparent. 
There is a peculiar ring to a genuine coin not attained 
by the imitation. The essential truths insisted upon 
by Christ are as clear as if written in red ink ; and 
it is only the essential that is worth discussing. 

The circumstances of Christ's birth are not known 
with any degree of accuracy, and it would be of no 
consequence if they were. That he was illegitimate 
cannot be claimed with certainty. He seems to have 
come from poor parents, like almost all men who 
have attained lasting fame. As is generally the 
case with regard to distinguished men, precocity is 
claimed for him. It is easy to find elements of su- 
perior ability in the youth of those who in maturity 
acquire superiority. 

He entered into Jewish society at a time when 
reform was most needed. The synagogue was all 
bound up in the old Mosaic law. The letter was all 
in all, the spirit nothing. According to religious 
custom, his people were bound to refrain from eating 
certain kinds of meat ; they had to observe certain 
religious forms and ceremonies ; they must practise 
circumcision ; certain feasts must be kept with ex- 
treme scrupulousness ; they might not eat with un- 
washen hands ; worship was conspicuously public ; 
they had many peculiar customs with regard to the 
Sabbath ; according to the rabbis, they might forgive 
one sinning against them until seven times, and no 



CHRIST. 65 

more ; they miglit swear by the temple, but not by 
the gold of the temple ; and a hundred other curious 
laws had they, all of which they felt bound to observe 
to the letter, regardless of the spirit, or their inward 
lives. It did not take profound education to perceive 
the absurdity in all these customs. Exact scholar- 
ship, on the contrary, had explained the application 
of the old law and framed these absurdities. A keen, 
active perception was all that was required, — keener 
indeed than would to us seem necessary ; but it will 
be remembered that nothing so imposes upon men as 
habit, and nothing so blinds the intellectual eyesight 
as custom. 

The experience of hundreds of years proves that 
nothing short of genius rises above the conventional 
rules of life. Living among a people who received 
the usual training, whose endeavor seems to be to 
resist and utterly quench progress, and whose laws 
were unmeaning words, he felt from youth, probably, 
irresistible contrary impulses. There was an inward 
perception of the great reality, an uprising of mys- 
terious thoughts. Those old false certainties were 
perplexing at first. Little by little the truth becomes 
manifest. One day this unrest culminates ; the spirit 
burns, and suddenly bursts forth, and the light falls 
upon all about. From this moment we have a re- 
former, one whose life is no longer his own, but 
consecrated to God and humanity. 

Though his people were blinded by superstition 
and imprisoned by the barriers of bigotry, an instinct 
inborn seemed to guide him to great and good things, 
of which no man had taught him ; for none — no, not 
one — from among all his people knew. Thus it is 
ever. Always in bondage, though of a thousand years' 
duration, some Moses rises, with the instinct of free- 

5 



66 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

dom, and leads his band up out of the land of Egypt, 
and the world knows not his resting-place ; ever in 
the tangled maze of a senseless, know-nothing phi- 
losophy of idle words, some Socrates instinctively 
catches the absurdity, and sages, tangled in their own 
web, vote him a demon ; some Christ ever tears the 
veil from a superstition, bigoted and hypocritical, and 
suffers the death of a heretic. 

We now reach a point where the evidence guides 
us. Christ is a great teacher and reformer. One 
great quality we must notice at the outset. He is a 
reformer of the highest type. He is no mere ex- 
tremist or theorizer, no hot-headed enthusiast. Rarely 
have we had a similar example. He perceives the 
evils of his times, and exposes them without fear or 
mercy ; but he never denounces the good. He sees 
both sides of the question. Here is one of the surest 
indications of his greatness. 

One of the most striking characteristics of real 
genius is that it has a double reflection. If you take 
a bit of Iceland spar and place it over a single dot on 
paper, strangely enough you see two. The crystal 
has double refraction. These two phenomena are 
precisely corresponding, one in the mental, the other 
in the physical world. This faculty of seeing both 
sides of a thing belongs to genius. Rarely if ever 
has one possessed the faculty to the degree that Christ 
possessed it. " ye fools," he cries, " you make clean 
the outside of the cup indeed, but within is all man- 
ner of evil and uncleanness." He does not, like so 
many reformers, decry the outer cleanliness. "Good," 
he says, "well enough; but remember that there is 
an interior more important, if anything, than the out- 
side. Did not he that made that which is without 
make that which is within also ? '' 



CHRIST. 67 

There is another story told in which Christ's thor- 
ough appreciation of both sides of life appears. The 
story contains too profound and characteristic a 
thought to be the work of any but a genius, and this 
is the only guide we have to the authentic teachings 
of Christ. It is that short, sweet story of Mary and 
Martha that I refer to, to me one of the sweetest and 
purest teachings of Christ. Mary lingered to hear 
Christ talk, instead of helping her sister, perceiving 
doubtless uncommon purity and beauty and truth in 
his words. When Martha, who was a typical busy 
housewife, requested Christ to command Mary to 
help her, his gently reproving answer, doubtless un- 
satisfactory to, and uncomprehended by Martha, con- 
tains a great truth and reveals a master : " Martha, 
Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many 
things : but one thing is needful ; and Mary hath 
chosen that good part which shall not be taken away 
from her." 

Christ did not say that one was wrong and the 
other right. He perceived that one, in the worry and 
fret of domestic cares, found no time for the higher 
things of life, for mental reflection, or the contempla- 
tion of beauty as in the flowers and birds, or the en- 
joyment of music ; that the other had chosen that 
good part, and it was right for her to love it, perhaps, 
better than for her sister to find her happiness only 
in work. Perhaps, as the reflecting young maiden 
rose from her seat at Christ's feet to aid her busy 
sister, she pondered over these words, and found in 
them a complete solution of life as manifested in her 
little family circle. Martha, maybe, hardly awaited 
the answer, but bustled away to her work forgetful of 
all else. 

In this simple, reasonable way he unfolds the mys- 



68 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

teries of life ; and when he separates right and 
wrong, his words, like sword-thrusts, cut clean and 
sharp. He wisely avoids discussion, and ever when 
attempts are made to catch him in some theory, or to 
trip him in some special expression, flies back to the 
main point with a suddenness startling and confusing 
to his questioners. How different is this from what 
we are accustomed to find in reformers ! One has but 
to recall the unreasonable words and actions of the 
antislavery agitators in our own country, and mark 
the contrast. It would be difficult to find another 
great reformer who has so little of radicalism and 
dogma. This single fact shows his pre-eminence. 

There is little or nothing specially new in Christ's 
teachings. The thought was old, but utterly lost in 
a maze of rules and forms. Deep truths had become 
completely lost in a labyrinth of words. At a certain 
famous cathedral in England there is a beautifully 
painted window, which is said to have been made by 
an apprentice out of the fragments of glass which had 
been rejected by his master. It is so far superior to 
all the rest in the church, that the vanquished artist 
is reported to have hanged himself out of mortification. 
Christ, in the same manner, used the fragments of 
truth which the theologians had lost sight of in the 
construction of a grand ethical and religious system, 
beside which their institutions sink into utter insigni- 
ficance. He brought out these old hidden truths, and 
infused new life into them. He awakened sleeping 
virtues, and revived lifeless bodies in very truth. 

In the work and teachings of this great soul we 
shall find his true character. A man's work portrays 
his character better than all the biographies ever 
written, if they fail thoroughly to comprehend this 
work. We have no reason to complain because 



CHRIST. 69 

Christ gave us no account of his life. He gave his 
work and his life to humanity, and that is enough. 
The only lamentable part is that none then under- 
stood either his work or his life. But his teaching 
enables us to know him well, — at least, all that it is 
important that we should know. Christ belongs to 
humanity, not because of the incidents of his daily life, 
but because of the lasting greatness of his teachings ; 
and these we do know or can trace with sufficient 
clearness. 

A man may be said to resemble a machine. To 
understand it you must find the source of its motion, 
and then you can trace its appliances throughout all 
the various complicated mechanisms to the final re- 
sult or function. What, then, is the underlying prin- 
ciple of Christ's teaching ? It is easy to apprehend 
this mainspring and source of all his work and teach- 
ing. It is his whole theology. Simplicit}'' itself, it 
embraces and contains his whole theory of life. A 
single word often used by him, understood by few or 
none of his own time or since, completely satisfies 
the inquiry, — Spirit. 

It seems clear that Christ meant by this word just 
what we to-day mean when we use it in our common 
conversation. One has committed a wrong, but with- 
out intending error. The spirit was right, we say, 
and we agree with Christ when we conclude that the 
person has committed no real crime. We may de- 
spise his judgment ; we can but admire his principle. 
The spirit in this common sense of the word was ever 
Christ's standard of judgment in every human rela- 
tion ; and I question whether or not it was his di- 
vinity. I am inclined to think that in Christ's mind 
both the human and the divine met in this simple 
idea. To use a mathematical figure, which after all 



70 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

may confuse rather than enlighten many, humanity' 
seemed to merge through this idea of spirit into 
divinity, just as plus merges through zero into minus. 
It is clear that Christ's idea of God was rather ab- 
stract than concrete. The great principle of his 
theology is apparently but the change from real to 
ideal. 

I Let us examine first, then, Christ's theological teach- 

/ ing. We shall find it as simple and plain as anything 
can be. He never propounded a theory. He never 
insisted upon a form, or haggled over a subtlety. He 
seemed to realize that disputation generally amounts 
to nothing, and always avoided it. A plain statement 
of a truth is better than an analytical, exegetical dis- 
cussion of it. If the truth is too profound or ideal 
for the age, the simple statement is a better receptacle 
of preservation than the subtle discussion, and will 
be the sooner comprehended, if indeed the discussion 
ever is. Shakspeare well expresses this when he says, 

j an honest tale " speeds " best plainly told. 

^ It was said before that Christ's idea of God seems 
to be that of spirit. Spirit is his whole theology. 
The stone which the builders rejected is become the 
head of the corner. The kins^dom of God is within. 
In his reported conversations we find this idea plainly 
indicated. Christ is athirst after a long walk in the 
heat of the day, and seeing a well near by approaches 
it, and waits in the shade for some one to come to 
draw water, from whom he may obtain enough to 
slake his thirst. As he sits there reflecting alone, 
he thinks, maybe, how like this cool spring at his 
. feet, which satisfies the outward thirst, is the spirit 
N)f love and charity and purity which satisfies the 
inner thirst ; and as he is buried deep in this reflec- 
tion, a woman comes to the well to draw water, and 



CHRIST. 71 

when asked to give she hesitates, and inquires how a 
stranger Jew can make such a request of a Samaritan. 
The natural surroundings and previous line of thought 
suggest the answer and the sublime lesson that fol- 
lows. The woman shrewdly brings up the dispute 
between her people and the Jews, saying, Our people 
worship here in this mountain, and your people say 
we are wrong, and that Jerusalem is the only place of 
worship for true believers. And then Christ strikes 
the key-note of all his theological teaching. " Woman, 
believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither 
in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the 
Father. . . . But the hour cometh, and now is, when 
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship 
him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

Christ did not attempt ever to define his idea of 
divinity any further than this. He did not specifi- 
cally paint the features or describe the attributes of 
his God. This was left for the theologians and phi- 
losophers. On the contrary, he distinctly says that 
he knows not, nor does any one know, what the spirit 
is. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence 
it cometh and whither it goeth : so is every one that is 
born of the spirit." As Paul says later, God dwells 
not in temples made by hand. Christ felt God within 
himself. He did not need to see him. God's temple is 
the soul. Furthermore, he distinctly states that God 
is the God of the living, not of the dead. The only 
sin is a disregard of the spirit. " If ye were blind, ye 
should have no sin : but now ye say. We see ; there- 
fore your sin remaineth." Again, whoever shall speak 
against the son of man shall be forgiven, but he that 



72 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

speaks against the spirit shall not be forgiven. He is 
self-condemned. 

Christ rarely spoke without using figurative lan- 
guage, and this has led to gross misapprehension 
from its very simplicity. Figurative language must 
be interpreted in connection with the thought it illus- 
trates. There never was a figure known but had a 
false side to it. It is a common saying that a meta- 
phor cannot "go on all fours." Theologians have tried 
to do this very thing, and ecclesiastical absurdities 
are the result. Christ loved to speak of the spirit 
which seems to incline to the right within us, as a 
father who guides us to all that is good and pure. 
He often spoke of it in the first person, a figure com- 
monly used by writers and orators of his own time, 
and even at present. These common familiarities of 
conversation have proved a constant stumbling-block 
since Christ's time. Indeed, his very hearers failed to 
understand him, thinking he spoke of himself. And 
this was, in a sense, a natural mistake, because of the 
advanced ideas he intended. But Christ knew he was 
not understood, and tried his best to lead people to 
his true meaning, all to no purpose, as will appear. 
His common expression " son of man," taken to refer 
to himself and so begun with a capital letter, clearly 
means only man in general, and is a common instance 
of the stupidity of his interpreters. Let us trace 
some of these sayings of Christ and the apparent 
misapprehensions. 

The misunderstanding began from the very first. 
It began with the story of the Temptation. Christ 
experienced this alone, and consequently the story we 
have is founded probably on accounts which he gave 
to his followers. In the calm of some evening when 
the little band was gathered together, — perchance in 



CHRIST. 73 

despondency, who can tell ? — Christ may have told his 
simple listeners how he had been tempted to abandon 
his project of becoming a teacher, how he too had ex- 
perienced hours of sorrow and doubt and nights of 
anxiety. He may have told them how in his hunger 
it occurred to him that God ought to send him food, 
for he was working in his service ; and then he thought 
perhaps the very stones at his feet would change to 
bread did he but speak the word. Severe temptations 
always come in hunger and weariness and trouble. 
He might have said that the kingdoms of Judaea, yes, 
of all the world, seemed in his grasp, if he would but 
give rein to ambition ; that it seemed to him that it 
would be a grand way to rise suddenly to the highest 
pitch of favor by some miraculous descent as if from 
heaven, say from the temple, when the crowd was 
thronging in and out ; and then how the good spirit 
came and told him not to yield, and some way the 
old words came to mind, " Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord, thy God.'^ At the familiar words these homely, 
honest fishermen and laborers start, and, rising, ex- 
change quick glances, and a feeling of awe comes over 
them. " This is the Son of God," they whisper ; " he 
himself just said so." Strange, wonderful delusion ! 
and yet as natural and true and simple as life, when 
one remembers that the Jews had long been awaiting 
a Messiah, Son of God. 

Christ did not mean that a devil had come in bodily 
form and tempted him, the Son of God. No, the 
words were in self-rebuke. He himself, by sucli un- 
worthy thoughts of shirking duty to gain power, and 
by yielding even in thought to sacrifice of principle, 
was tempting God. 

Those beautiful words immediately preceding the 
resurrection of Lazarus offer a good example. Christ 



74 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

said: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that 
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die." This was the great resurrection, greater 
than a mere bringing of the dead to life. Martha at 
once responds : " Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, 
which should come into the world." Christ himself 
explains fully this expression " son of God ; " for their 
own law said, " Ye are gods unto whom the word of 
God come." 

Christ spoke often of being sent by God, as Socrates 
spoke of being dissuaded by the demon. Once he is 
reported as saying : " If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the 
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
of living water." And many people said. This is the 
prophet ; and more said, This is the Christ ; and they 
divided, and began to quarrel. At another time Christ 
said, '' I and the Father are one," clearly showing that 
he spoke figuratively. And the people asked, " Where 
is thy father ? " Christ then plainly told them that 
thev were mistaken in his meaning. " Ye neither 
know me nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye 
should have known my Father." And then he added 
in apparent disappointment : '^ Whither I go ye can- 
not come. ... Ye are from beneath, I am from above : 
ye are of this world ; I am -.not of this world." 
Once more he shows the keenest disappointment oc- 
casioned by this continual misapprehension. Christ 
said : " I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no 
man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had 
known me, ye should have known my Father also." 
Philip requests him to reveal his father, and he 
sadly replies : " Have I been so long time with you, 
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? " And 



CHRIST. 75 

finally all lie can say is, " If ye love me, keep my 
commandments," the burden of wliich was love, add- 
ing that they shall in a little time understand and 
know him. 

But he went further than this. He not only tells 
his disciples and people generally that they are mis- 
taken, but often explicitly denies the claim of divinity, 
and rebukes those who thrust it upon him. When one 
came to him and said, " Good Master, what shall I 
do that I may inherit eternal life ? " he quickly and 
sharply responded : " Why callest thou me good ? 
There is none good but one, that is, God ; but if thou 
wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." When 
the Pharisees demanded a sign from heaven to test his 
power, he said almost in vexation : " Why doth this 
generation seek after a sign ? Verily I say unto you, 
There shall no sign be given unto this generation.'' 
On another occasion a woman cried, " Blessed is the 
womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast 
sucked ; " and he corrected her thus : ^' Bather blessed 
are they that hear the word of God and keep it." 
When his disciples quarrelled among themselves as 
to which was greatest, his words are not to be mis- 
understood : " Which is the greater, he that sitteth at 
meat, or he that serveth ? But I am among you as 
he that serveth." 

When Peter in response to his inquiry said, " I be- 
lieve that thou art Christ," he charged him to tell no 
man that. There is a convincing denial of divinity 
in his continual warnings to people as to the falsity 
of prophets and signs. The law and the prophets 
have been, but now is the word of God preached. 
Priest and prophet he repudiated. The great charac- 
teristic of Christ's teaching is an utter disregard of 
form and ceremony, and all outward worship as of 



76 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

gods. His bitterest denunciations fall upon those 
who practise these very things ; in short, he denounces 
none but these. Throughout his reported sayings there 
is an utter abhorrence of dogma, and any form what- 
ever of open worship. He cries, " I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice." 

Christ thoroughly realized how utterly useless it is 
to satisfy the human mind by an}^ dogmatic insistence 
upon special doctrines or creeds. For this reason he 
never propounds any theory. His rules are general. 
He knew that people will find faults in creeds, and 
with reason, for they are there. He likens sectarians 
to children sitting in the market-place calling to their 
mates, " We have piped to you and ye have not 
danced, we have mourned and ye have not lamented." 
As if everybody should dance because two or three 
lightheads pass the time in whistling hornpipes ; or 
all assume long faces because one is so silly as 
continually to wear mourning I 

It is surprising to notice how many people expect 
just this acquiescence in others. This feeling has 
even entered into fashion. Little children and even 
whole families are dressed in mourning for years, 
because of the death of one for whom oftentimes 
they have entertained nothing like regard. Anger 
wishes there were no feeling but pain; love sighs for 
universal sentiment ; grief moans for an ocean of 
tears ; pride haughtily demands a world of bent 
knees. As long as men are men, they will not be 
satisfied with any one prevailing sentiment or quality. 
Those who try to satisfy the world remind us of the 
fable of the Old Man, his Son, and the Ass. Christ 
illustrated this weakness of humanity very forcibly 
when he reminded the people that when John came 
neither eating nor drinking they said he had a devil ; 



CHRIST. 77 

and yet when he himself went about eating and 
drinking, they were quite as ready to cry : " Behold 
a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of pub- 
licans and sinners." And he adds, with characteristic 
insight, that wisdom is justified of her children. 

Christ always avoided those extremes into which 
common reformers are apt to fall. He will not dis- 
cuss theories. When his hearers demanded what 
authority he had for his acts and speech, intending to 
catch him in some blasphemy, he in turn offers a simi- 
lar question in regard to the baptism of John, and 
thus escapes an answer. He will not meddle with 
the unseen or unknown, either. When he is ques- 
tioned about heaven and the future life, he points 
out the absurdity of the questions when men will not 
accept his views even about earthly things. 

But he is not content with a merely passive attitude 
toward the absurd formalism and bigoted hypocrisy 
of his day. It is against this prime evil that he 
spends the greatest energy. This is to be expected. 
It is only putting the statement of his essential idea 
in another way, conversely. Insisting that spirit is the 
only God, the only truth, the only life, he must of 
necessity specially denounce that which is the exact 
contrary ; and as a matter of fact this is just what 
he does do. He loses patience and becomes almost 
bitterly angry over the prevailing absurd ceremony of 
worship. What a fiery ardor there is in his merciless 
denunciation ! 

" Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for ye neither 
go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to 
go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
prayer : therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. 



78 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye com- 
pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, 
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 

*' Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall 
swear by the temple, it is nothing ; but whosoever shall swear 
by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Ye fools and blind ; 
for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth 
the gold ? And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is noth- 
ing ; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is 
guilty. Ye fools and blind : for whether is greater, the gift, or 
the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall 
swear by the altar, sweareth by it and by all things thereon. 
. . . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the 
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith : 
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other un- 
done. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a 
camel. 

" Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but 
within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind 
Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, 
that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited 
sepulchres, which indeed appear beaut'iful outward, but are 
within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even 
so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the 
prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say. 
If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have 
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the 
children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up, then, 
the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of 
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ? " 

The whole life of the sect of Pharisees was bound 
up in their whimsical ceremonies. They were eter- 



CHRIST. 79 

nally muttering a prayer, or making a sign, or observ- 
ing a fast. Their descendants flourish to this day, 
proud of their antiquity and their bigotry. On one 
occasion when Christ neglected to Avash his hands 
before sitting down at a table to which he had been 
invited, his own host was rude enough to make com- 
ments on this omission of due form. Now, there is 
nothing bad about washing the hands. AVould that 
more people were scrupulous about it to-day ! But it 
is better to eat with never so dirty hands than super- 
stitiously to insist upon washen fingers. And this 
was the very point which Christ made. 

All these sayings of Christ are familiar, and scarcely 
need repetition. But it may be well to say here that 
Christ never dreamed of a Bible, an infallible revela- 
tion, a Word of God, to be published over the earth 
and to be read in church, and to furnish priests with 
texts. We often become so familiar with words that 
we utterly lose the meaning behind them. This is 
especially true of Biblical writings. There is nothing 
so useless practically as a text or a maxim. I do not 
believe either ever kept a single individual from doing 
a foolish act. The meaningless versification of the 
Scriptures has done more to conceal the real teachings 
of Christ, than all the inspired interpretation of apos- 
tles and teaching of priests put together. To offer the 
idea another way, in the words of a modern divine, 
the revised version of the New Testament has done 
more to undermine Christianity than all the infidels 
that ever lived. The greatest cause of this is nothing 
more nor less than the simple omission of versifica- 
tion. Hence I think it well to offer full quotations 
of particular passages. 

A single other passage I wish to offer in this con- 
nection, as showing Christ's attitude towards the 



80 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

dogmatic tradition of the Jews. " Well hatli Esaias 
prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This 
people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is 
far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, 
For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold 
the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, 
. . . making the word of God of none effect through 
your tradition." This witty example of the prevail- 
ing tradition of the times is one of the brightest sar- 
casms that Christ ever uttered; and perhaps it reveals 
best the utter contempt with which Christ looked 
upon the elaborate tradition, subtle reasoning, and 
bigoted and hypocritical dogmatism of the times. 
There was as little of the priest in Christ as in any 
man that ever lived. He scorned all such foolishness, 
and referred to it with that kind of contemptuous 
ridicule which it richly deserved. 

Christ's words with regard to immortality may 
well be regarded as a part of his theological teach- 
ings. We find Christ's immortality a vastly different 
thing from that of Christianity. When he said the 
kingdom of God was at hand, he meant a vastly 
different thing from that final dissolution which 
theologians teach. Indeed his words cannot be under- 
stood as referring to a material kingdom at all. In 
his early conversation with the woman of Samaria, 
he states that God's kingdom is not a thing of the 
future, but of the present. It has already begun. 
Every good man who is true to the spirit within 
him has himself realized this great kingdom, — a 
spirit-dynasty, an eternal monarchy, absolute, of pure 
and upright intent. The good enthroned forever 
in the mind of man is God and heaven. It is the 
spirit that quickens, the flesh is nothing. But what 



CHRIST. 81 

is this spirit ? We have a very satisfactory and 
conclusive definition : " The words I speak to you, 
they are spirit, and they are life," immortal. 

In speaking of the future life Christ used only 
the most general terms. He avoided any explicit 
teaching in regard to it, for how indeed would people 
have comprehended his ideas on the next world when 
they failed so ignominiously to understand his reflec- 
tions on this world ? The question is his own, and 
by it he avoids with relation to immortality the very 
thing he shuns in all his teachings, namely, dogmatism. 
His God rules the living, not the dead, he says ; and 
the statement is made apparently in flat contradiction 
of the doctrine of bodily resurrection. This is the 
only explicit teaching as to the future life which we 
can attribute to Christ. Incidentally many little ideas 
do appear, all of which go to confirm the notion that 
he repudiated the theory of a personal objective 
life hereafter. Immortality is abstract like his God. 
" For when they rise from the dead they neither marry 
nor are given in marriage, but are as angels [literally, 
messengers] which are in heaven." When James and 
John begged that they might sit on either hand of 
Christ in the glorious kingdom of the hereafter, he 
told them that they knew not what they asked. " Can 
ye drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized 
with the baptism that I am baptized with ? " ''We can," 
they reply ; and then Christ responds. Well and good ; 
" but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is 
not mine to give." 

But what is this kingdom of heaven of which he 
speaks ? Who are the angels there ? Plain and 
simple is his beautiful thought. It is a kingdom of 
little children. But does he mean even this literally ? 
Far from it. All the good, the true, the pure in heart, 

6 



82 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

are little children ; and all shall see God, for of such 
is the kingdom of heaven. Childhood, that age when 
thought is speech and speech is truth, is all sincerity. 
He places a little child in the midst of the people, and 
says : Whoever shall be as this little child, pure and 
honest and true, shall become great in the kingdom of 
heaven. Whoever is kind to children is kind to me. 
Woe to him that offends them ! Take heed that ye 
despise not one of these little ones, for in heaven 
their messengers ever behold the face of my Father, 
who is the spirit of truth and purity. If we forgive 
men their trespasses here in this life, in death the 
Heavenly Father will wipe out ours. If we are so 
careful of our lives, we shall lose them altogether. 
" He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that 
loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Here is his 
life immortal, — one that thinks not of self, the bodily 
and the sensual, but one that lives for others and for 
right. What a grand immortality this, a life of good 
works and of noble thoughts ! Surely Christ has 
won it. 

The political teachings of Christ are of no impor- 
tance, though great stress has been laid upon them 
during certain periods, giving them a position second 
only to his theological doctrine. He cheerfully recog- 
nizes political authority. The humbug of spiritual 
and temporal power later developed was none of his, 
but was the invention of a tyrannical and greedy 
priesthood. Christ says, Eender to Caesar his due, and 
to God what is his. He takes the lofty tone of the 
ancient Greek tragedian : — 

Creon. And thou didst dare to disobey these laws ? 
Antigone. Yes, for it was not Zeus who gave them forth, 
Nor justice dweUing with the gods below, 
Who traced these laws for all the sons of men ; 



CHKIST. 83 

"Not did I deem thy edicts strong enough, 

That thou, a moi'tal man, shouldst overpass 

The unwritten laws of God that know not change. 

They are not of to-day nor yesterday, 

But live forever, nor can man assign 

When first they" sprang to being. 

Not through fear 
Of any man's resolve was I prepared 
Before the gods to bear the penalty 
Of sinning against these. 

It may be that Christ in a sense despised politics 
and civil government. I am inclined to believe that 
the mock triumphal entry into Jerusalem was in- 
tended as a burlesque of the show of greatness, mag- 
nificence, and dignity of the government prevailing at 
the time. In the midst of a great concourse of peo- 
ple, shouting, '^Hail ! King of the Jews !" Christ ap- 
pears riding on a miserable ass, the most undignified 
of God's created animals, over a road strewn with 
palms and olive-branches. As if to heighten the 
absurdity of this great triumphal progress of the 
people's king, and to make the scene more ludicrous, 
if this were possible, a shambling ridiculous foal is 
seen trotting behind. Here is a masterly sarcasm on 
the government of the age, not to say civil govern- 
ment in general, and worthy of a master mind. 

What a satire is this ! Christ always spoke of 
kings as " clad in soft raiment," and he will be a 
king to please the people : so, clad in his coarse, 
homely dress, he rides an ass in triumph, crowned 
with a wisp of olive leaves. Without doubt great 
men do find so much pettiness and chicanery and folly 
in politics and government as often to eradicate all 
feeling but that of sarcasm and contempt. I do not 
believe this is right. It may be that parties are as 



84 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

bad as they are partly because these very men have 
no respect for government. But that the feeling has 
existed in all ages, and does exist at present, is be- 
yond dispute ; and this burlesque, if intended as such, 
was a masterly expression of the feeling. 

The moral lessons of this great master are quite as 
simple as his religious instruction. Indeed it is hard 
to separate the two : one is but the application of 
the other. Out of it all we have a spiritual morality. 
His God, as was said, is spirit. Thus his theology is 
abstract ; his morality is concrete. His morality con- 
sists of spirit practically applied in the world. His 
theology is a change from the concrete to the abstract ; 
his morality is the abstract becoming concrete. To 
illustrate, take any quality which is abstract, as vir- 
tue ; changing abstract virtue to concrete, we have 
good man. Only Christ did not offer any such theory 
as this : he never propounded any theory. Could he 
read this he would probably laugh at it ; and, as was 
intimated before, perhaps this explanation, really in- 
tended to aid, may prove a stumbling-block. 

We hasten at once, then, to Christ's practical mo- 
rality. He starts out with the eminently practical 
idea of not putting old wine into new bottles. The 
old law has been. Truth and right is. Tradition is 
a thing of the past ; let it bury itself. Do good re- 
gardless of law and tradition and day. Man is not 
made for the law or the Sabbath. But if people must 
have a rule to go by, he will give his commandments, 
than which there is no other : " Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength : this is the first commandment. The sec- 
ond is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." 



CHRIST. 85 

As in his religious instruction, the standard of 
judgment is spirit. A man's real intent is his act, 
and the act is right or wrong as the intent. We 
often have a mistaken idea of intent. We cheat 
ourselves by this idea. We let a careless, slovenly- 
thought or half-formed purpose take the place of in- 
tent ; and then we hug ourselves for our virtue. So 
far we have not begun to intend. We are too apt 
to say one intends to do right when he has never 
made up his mind what is right, but is only at that 
hesitating point between a dim, unconscious right and 
wrong. A real active intent, no mere passive drifting, 
rules its object. Christ lays down the rule with some 
emphasis. 

" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou 
shalt not kill ; and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the 
judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with 
his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judg- 
ment. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there 
rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be recon- 
ciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Ye 
have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt 
not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That whosoever 
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery 
with her already in his heart." 

Continuing, he says : Let your conversation be 
" Yea, yea ; Nay, nay," — that is, straightforward 
and frank, for whatsoever is more than this is evil. 
How often do men deceive themselves, and claim 
honesty because, indeed, they do not lie outright, but 
indirectly ! What enters into a man does not defile 
him, but what comes out of him. " For out of the 
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, for- 
nications, theft, false witness, blasphemies." 



86 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

One day Christ happened to be standing by the 
treasury when the people were dropping in their 
offerings, and as is natural he noted casually the gifts 
of the people. Many that were rich put in quite lib- 
eral sums of money ; but soon along came a poor 
widow and dropped in two mites. Christ noticed 
the offering, probably because of its insignificance, 
and doubtless glanced at once to the giver to see 
who could have cast in such a small sum. That 
glance was enough. Turning to his disciples, he said: 
" Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath 
cast more in, than all they which have cast into the 
treasury : for all they did cast in of their abundance ; 
but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even 
all her living." He perceived that these two mites 
came from the heart, while the larger sums of the 
many came but from the purse ; and with this quick 
intuition he saw the opportunity for a moral lesson 
and seized it. It may be well to notice that Christ 
did not approve the gift. 

This is the way Christ always taught, from inci- 
dents of daily life, and generally as they happened 
or caught his eye. One day a person requested him 
to divide an inheritance over which he and his brother 
were quarrelling. Christ refused with contempt ; he 
looked upon the contention with loathing. There is 
nothing strange about this contempt, for people of all 
ages have felt it. All have heard some acquaintance 
perhaps speak thus contemptuously of such things, 
and persistently refuse to contend about them, though 
he were the rightful owner. This is just the feeling 
Christ had when the quarrel was brought to his at- 
tention, and he scornfully refuses to be a judge be- 
tween the brothers. But he takes advantage of the 
opportunity for a moral lesson. " Take heed and be- 



CHRIST. 87 

ware of covetousness : for a man's life consisteth not 
of the abundance of things which he possesseth." 
And then he gives a parallel, showing how foolish it 
is for one to think only of sensual pleasures, regard- 
less of the higher things of life, when life itself is 
so uncertain. 

Christ was no pessimist. He did not go about 
with a long face or a cynical leer. He loved to see 
people happy. He loved mirth and simple, heartfelt 
joy. Shall the children mourn as long as the bride- 
groom is with them ? Earely indulging himself, 
doubtless, in pleasure as the world goes, or in open 
sport, yet it is clear that he in no wise denounced 
it, but rather commended it; and frequently he 
brings the happy, blithesome things of Nature into 
his parables. Look at the birds, how they sing 
throughout the long busy day ; the lilies of the field, 
how joyful and bright they look ! Without doubt, 
in another sense, he himself might again have said 
with right good heartiness : " Eat, drink, and be 
merry, for to-morrow we die." But gluttony is not 
feasting, nor drunkenness gayety. Eat to live and 
enjoy life, not live to eat, would be his lesson. Not 
the meanest drunkard or the lowest glutton or the 
basest sot but knows, even as he knows his own folly, 
that moderation and temperance in all is happiness. 
No, this is no pessimistic grumbler, no cynical mis- 
anthrope, that has come down to us through the ages. 
Believe me, it is one who loved men, and one who 
appreciated the beauties of life and its relations, that 
speaks to-day as two thousand years ago to mankind. 

The ideal, the soul, is life. The little things are 
those that count in its relations. A smile, a kind 
word, or a look will brighten the gloomiest heart. 
Whoever gives a little child a cup of cold water does 



88 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

that which will not be forgotten. These little kind 
acts and the feelings which prompt them somehow 
get lost in the affairs of the world. In our business 
cares and in our social enjoyments we are apt to for- 
get all about others in general. In fact, as one 
grows older, unless the utmost care is taken, one 
grows ever narrower and more selfish, thinks more 
of self and less of others than he did once. Why, 
in youth how readily one will part with his last 
penny for a friend, or to aid a poor stranger in dis- 
tress! The poor are more apt to retain this kindly 
sympathy for others than the rich, who forget amidst 
their luxury and cares that they too were once poor 
and needed sympathy, and that others remain so. And 
this, it seems, is one of Christ's own teachings. 

One day a rich youth of noble blood came to him, 
and asked what he should do to inherit eternal life. 
Christ, half in ridicule and half in earnest, tells him 
to go and sell his possessions, and labor for mankind, 
— a thing which he knew the youth would not do, 
and from the very manner of his life could not practi- 
cally do with success, accustomed as he was to lines 
of thought and action vastly diffeient from those of 
the people whom he would teach, and whose life- 
wants he probably could not, even with the most 
earnest effort, comprehend. The young man shows 
his typical breeding in his very words as they stand 
to-day, which is the best internal proof of their 
authenticity. In a boasting manner, yet not so much 
so to him probably, — for we must consider" that he 
was a noble youth, presumably accustomed to flattery 
and to hear his praises of himself gravely acquiesced 
in, — he states openly that he has kept all the com- 
mandments from his youth up, and haughtily demands 
what more is wanted. Christ sees the egotism which 



CHRIST. 89 

is a second nature to the young man, and coolly 
rebukes it in an off-hand sentence. Oh, go sell thy 
possessions and give to the poor, and follow me. 
Then as coolly turning away from the rich aristocrat 
to his disciples, — the best rebuke which the youth 
could receive, — he expresses his true and deeper 
feeling : " How hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of God ! " Hoffman has well 
pictured the scene, with ready insight catching the 
idea, and with remarkable skill and feeling express- 
ing the conception. 

Wealth is not condemned. Thrift is one of Christ's 
primary teachings. Man must grow morally and in- 
tellectually, or he is already condemned. " It is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
God," reveals the truer meaning of the master. This 
is a terrible condemnation of the rich, to be sure, but 
absolutely true. People say that a man who has 
wealth ought to be good, because there is nothing 
to hinder. Short-sighted, blundering dunces ! as if 
added opportunity did not mean added responsibility. 
The story of Lazarus and Dives again illustrates 
Christ's idea of riches. This story cannot have been 
intended as a sweeping condemnation of the rich ; 
it is wrong to take it so. '' Eemember that you in 
your lifetime received good things and Lazarus evil 
things ; but now he is comforted and you are tor- 
mented," is absurd on its face, if taken in such a way. 
It is nonsense to punish a man because he has been 
happy. Christ never intended such an absurdity. 

A rich man has a thousand temptations to the poor 
man's one ; he experiences a constant pressure that 
the poor have not. Indeed, a man gifted with intel- 
lectual brilliancy is rather more likely to end in utter 



90 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

failure of the true ends of life than men of more 
mediocre ability. There is a solemn truth in the 
witty statement of the French novelist, that any 
stick, stump, or clod may make an honest man ; but 
it takes brains to make a rogue. If it is true that 
men must go to hell because they are rich, must 
suffer pain because now happy, then all criminals, 
sinners, and cutthroats may congratulate themselves : - 
it is the good and the pure that have had true happi- 
ness who are to be damned hereafter. Riches are not 
condemned in themselves ; but their abuse is con- 
demned. Heaps of idle money, or money serving 
only sensuous pleasure or miserly gain, is despicable, 
though respectable and honorable even in the eyes 
of the world. 

Christ realized that progress is morality itself. 
Not only should a man answer for what he has, but 
his possessions should be increased. He tells the 
story of the talents to illustrate his meaning. There 
is no such thing as moral inactivity. Morality is 
progression ; its opposite is retrogression. All is 
motion in this world of ours. Men are either press- 
ing onward and upward, or slipping backward and 
downward. Here is a fig-tree that has run to leaves : 
let it die, it cumbers the ground. Another tree 
bearing fruit should be trimmed and fertilized, that 
its product may increase. 

Christ was ever alive to broad charity, to attain 
which no rules can be given. Once when he stood 
among the people teaching, some one told him that 
his mother and brethren were a little way out of the 
crowd waiting to see him : he seized the opportunity 
to offer the grandest moral idea the world has ever 
heard, withal not first broached by him, — one that 
sends a thrill through every man, and makes him 



CHKIST. 91 

nobler for the thought. I wonder that no artist has 
grasped the conception and given us a masterpiece. 
I think sometime some one will. It is the grandest 
theme, without exception, to be found in the Bible, — 
a noble, moving scene, in very truth a magnificent 
word-picture. " But he answered and said unto him 
that told him, Who is my mother, and who are my 
brethren ? And he stretched forth his hand toward 
the multitude, and said, Behold my mother and my 
brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my 
Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and 
sister, and mother." I repeat, this is a grand theme, 
noble and lofty as any immortalized by the hand of 
art. In the same spirit Thomas Paine said his coun- 
try was the world, and his religion to do good. 

The s^^iritual brotherhood of man was Christ's 
great moral lesson, — a thought advanced long before 
his time, but never so broadly extended and persist- 
ently urged. He pictures the spirit-father of loving 
kindness choosing those whom he will have to share 
his kingdom ; and this is what the king says to those 
rich in worthy deeds : " Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, 
and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in : naked, 
and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I 
was in prison, and ye came unto me." Then the 
righteous for answer ask when they did all these 
things. They have no memory of ever seeing the noble 
speaker an hungered and giving him food, or thirsty 
and giving him drink. They remember no kindness 
whatever showed to him, and this is part of their 
virtue. Listen now to the answer : " Verily I say 
unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 



92 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the least of these my brethren, ye have done it iinto 
me." And the wicked he pictures as condemned 
to lasting reproach, because they have not done these 
very acts of simple kindness. 

It is no credit, he says, to favor those who favor 
us ; the meanest give loans to receive as much again 
in return. But we should love our enemies, and do 
good regardless of the return, hoping for nothing 
again. Is not the Father of all kind to the good and 
to the bad? Does not he send rain upon the just 
and upon the unjust ? Be like him, then, for you 
cannot be more perfect. Be merciful as he is merci- 
ful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged : condemn 
not, and ye shall not be condemned : forgive, and ye 
shall be forgiven : give, and it shall be given unto 
you ; good measure, pressed down and shaken to- 
gether, and running over, shall men give into your 
bosom. Yet these things are not to be done in the 
hope of reward. The reward will come, to be sure ; 
but a spirit that thinks not of reward is greatest. 
Why should we hatefully speak of the trifling motes 
in our brothers' eyes, when our own are full of 
beams ? A man is known by his acts, and they 
speak for themselves, little needing our sarcastic 
spite. 

Kindness is not born of rules. If there was any- 
thing Christ abhorred, it was a rule, a subtle law. 
When a noted lawyer asked him to define the word 
" neighbor," as occurring in his commandment, here 
is the definition he gives : — 

" A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, and 
wounded him, and departed leaving him half dead. And by 
chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when 
he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a 



CHRIST. 93 

Levite, when he was at that place, came and looked on him 
and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan 
(despised of all men), as he journeyed, came where he was, 
and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to 
him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and 
set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took 
care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took 
out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him. 
Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when 
I come again I will repay thee. Which now of these three 
thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the 
thieves ? " 

Who can give a better definition ? Does Webster 
or Worcester, think you ? In our practical lives 
what do narrow definitions amount to ? W'^liat is the 
letter of the law ? Shall it stand before the spirit ? 
Christ responded with a thundering IsTo, which has 
increased in intensity since his day, so that many 
over the whole earth, have heard it, and re-echoed the 
sentiment. Viewed in this light, that old custom of 
the Adventists of respouding to the sentiments of 
the preacher, rendered comical oftentimes by its ab- 
surd abuse, becomes quite meritorious and worthy 
of imitation in spirit and daily act by the more fash- 
ionable sects. An honest, helpful life proves a man 
good. It is better to feel compunction than to be 
able to give the most accurate definition of it. 

Christ would have us keep our virgin lamps ever 
well filled and trimmed, for we know not when we 
may have occasion to use them. Opportunities may 
come to us unexpectedly, and find us wanting. The 
real spirit of goodness never sleeps. Its light is 
always burning. Oftentimes we mistake its manifes- 
tations and deem them erroneous, as the disciples 
often did. When loving women break alabaster 



94 CHRIST ^5. CHRISTIANITY. 

boxes to pour precious ointment on the heads of the 
great in noble deeds, too often we raise the hateful, 
envious cry of indignation at such waste. What 
might not these hundred pence have bought for the 
poor ? In our extremely practical charity to the 
poor, we forget that oftentimes examples of devotion 
produce an hundred-fold harvest of good deeds. 
Again, on the contrary, one may become so devoted 
to principle as to be thoroughly bad. 

On one occasion a woman taken in adultery was 
brought to Christ for judgment, it being suggested 
that the law of Moses provided that in such cases 
the woman should be stoned to death. At first he 
stooped and wrote upon the ground as if he did not 
hear the woman's accusers, and then, rising, an- 
swered with startling suddenness and a quick, pierc- 
ing glance, "He that is without sin among you, let 
him first cast a stone at her," and quietly resumed his 
writing. The guilty accusers seize the opportunity 
afforded by his inattention to slink off unseen, so 
that when Christ rose up again, not one appeared 
in sight, and he found himself alone face to face 
with the woman. He asks her if any condemned 
her, and she says, " ISTo one ; " and then he responds : 
" Neither do I condemn thee : go thy way and sin no 
more." 

Punishment inflicted by those more guilty than the 
unfortunate victim is but poor correction : the un- 
fortunate might better go free. Shakspeare has well 
expressed the thought, — 

" He who the sword of heaven will bear 
Should be as holy as severe ; 
Pattern in himself to know, 
Grace to stand, and virtue go ; 
More nor less to others paying 



CHEIST. 95 

Than by self-offences weighing. 
Shame to him whose cruel striking 
Kills for faults of his own liking ! 
Twice treble shame on Angelo, 
To weed my vice and let his grow ! 
O, what may man within him hide, 
Thouo-h an2;el on the outward side ! 
How may likeness made in crimes, 
Making practice on the times, 
To draw with idle spiders' strings 
Most ponderous and substantial things ! " 

But the morality of this great leader appears in its 
most beautiful light in his last days, after lie himself 
realized that any day he might lose his life at the 
hands of an enraged populace. It stands forth in 
simple grandeur in his last conversations with the 
devoted few, when he seeks to set them right, to 
correct their mistaken views of himself, and guide 
aright their erring hopes. Mindful of the probable 
shortness of the time yet left to him, he earnestly 
strives to make his followers see the great truths he 
has taught in their right relation. He realizes that 
the ideas which they have gained are far from his 
real thought, and uses the very simplest language to 
lead them to his real meaning. What a great, single- 
minded man this was ! What a pure, noble, simple 
heart ! I love to linger over those last few pages 
of Saint John. To read them is ennobling. Those 
thoughts are pure and sweet as a fragrant rose, 
radiant in their simple loveliuess. 

Christ could not understand why people failed to 
comprehend his thought, or comprehending, refused 
to live according to the light they had. And it is 
truly one of the strangest things in the world why 
we do what we know is wrong. Meliora video et pro- 



96 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

hoque, deteriora sequor^ is one of those strange phases 
of life which, no one would believe possible, were it 
not so constantly manifested in the lives of each 
and all of us. Christ did not perceive how hard 
it is for men hampered by the iron rule of custom 
to see with unbiassed eyes. Free from such influ- 
ence himself, he could not understand its power, nor 
place himself in the position occupied by his hear- 
ers, and from their standpoint view the world and 
its life. It is always so with great men. A highly 
cultured man cannot conceive of the barbarous de- 
lights of cannibals, — their gluttony, brutality, and 
bloodthirstiness. Does it seem possible that but a 
few years ago in this cultured civilization of ours, 
blessed of God indeed, an educated, liberal-minded 
clergy could find moral right absolute in the institu- 
tion of human slavery ? 

This great fact dawned upon Christ late, yet ere 
his death, and best of all, in its true light. Weak 
minds call it stubborn perversity of men, and seek to 
force truth. A great soul quietly bows its head in 
humility, content to wait for a brighter day sure to 
dawn sooner or later. Conscious of harshness to man- 
kind in its earlier vehemence, it humbly cries mea 
culpa; and when abuse and scorn and ridicule are 
heaped upon it, patiently submits. Oh, how noble are 
those words from the cross, wrung from a body in 
anguish, but rising unconscious, like the fragrance of 
a flower, from a soul so sweet and pure and gentle : 
"• Forgive them, for they know not what they do ! '* It 
brings tears to the eyes ; yet we feel a sweet sorrow, 
like the noble woman of Shakspeare who, on learning 
of the sad death of her poor, broken-hearted father, 
smiles through the first passionate outburst of grief. 
1 The better I see, and approve, but I do the worse. 



CHRIST. 97 

To err is human ; to understand error and correct it, 
is genius ; to forgive error, is divine. 

Disappointment chastened and purified him, if in- 
deed he really needed it. Christ expected an early- 
victory ; of course people would readily accept truth 
so patent. The fact that his ideal was too high for 
the age to comprehend, brought home to him and 
thoroughly appreciated as it was, softened and sub- 
dued his sterner feelings. He grows milder and 
milder. In this almost overwhelming disappoint- 
ment his real greatness and nobility are most promi- 
nent. His humility displays his grandeur. He no 
longer chides the failings of his followers ; bitter 
denunciations are forgotten. ^'If any man hear my 
words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came 
not to judge the world, but to save the world." 
Where is now that early sarcasm and fierce invective ? 
Behold this man who with his whip of cords drove 
the hucksters and gamblers like sheep from the 
temple, now again and within sight of this very 
scene washing the feet of his simple followers ! 
Hear the gentle words that accompany, so noble and 
kind that we can almost judge of the cast of features : 
" Do you know what I have done to you ? You call 
me master and lord ; and you do well, for so I am. 
If I, then, your lord and master, have washed your 
feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For 
I have given you an example, that you should do as 
I have done to you." 

Christ seems to have known of the plot laid against 
him. Perhaps even Judas himself had told him about 
it, and then had been enjoined to play his part or carry 
out the intention already formed. It certainly seems 
that there was some understanding, some common 
ground, between the two. And it seems to have been 

7 



98 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Christ's intention to submit calmly to the plot and 
cheerfully await its issue, perhaps not thinking at 
first that he would have to suffer death, but deter- 
mined to have patience till the end. This determina- 
tion, and the anticipation of trials more or less severe 
induces a softened, kindly affection for those about 
him, who, though far beneath him in ability and firm- 
ness, have yet, like faithful mastiffs, ever looked to 
him for guidance, and more than once stood faithfully 
at his side in adversity. He feels as if he were in a 
sense their protector, and fears for them in the future. 
After saying that man is glorified in him (for, like all 
geniuses, he has a proper appreciation of his own 
greatness, and constantly asserts it, though with be- 
coming grace), and that God himself was glorified in 
man, — a statement which they probably failed to 
understand, — he assumes a touching fatherliness to- 
ward them, treating them with tender affection, like 
little children. His own words, as they are reported, 
are best: "Little children, yet a little while I am 
with you. Ye shall seek me : and as I said unto the 
Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come ; so now I say 
to you. A new commandment I give unto you, 
That ye love one another ; as I have loved you, that 
ye also love one another. By this shall all men 
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
another.'' 

Peter breaks in, with his usual boasting manner, 
full of bluster, and yet, like his kind, a moral cow- 
ard, and receives a stinging but just rebuke in the 
presence of all. Christ resumes his parting conver- 
sation. He seems to have some doubts of the ex- 
act character of the future. He warns them not to 
be troubled. There are many mansions in the Father's 
house. Men are not all alike ; and the great guide of 



CHRIST. 99 

life knows it, and gives to each a place tliat lie can 
fill. If he shall prepare a place for them, he will 
come again and receive them, that they may share 
his joy. He tells them that they already know the 
way and the place, for has he not always taught 
them the ways of virtue, — hers is a place of peace, 
and her paths are the paths of pleasantness ? He 
responds in the same vein to their questions : " I 
am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh 
unto the Father but by me." 

And then he frankly tells them, in answer to their 
continued questions, that they have failed to grasp 
his meaning, half in sorrow and pity, and half in re- 
buke, — a touching thing this, the painful efforts of 
a great, simple man to teach minds slow to com- 
prehend, and ever grasping at the outward form or 
expression and losing the inner meaning, sad enough 
to bring tears to one's eyes though it happened ages 
ago. Do I say ages ago ? It happens anew, then, 
every century, every generation. Every age may 
witness painful, patient, fruitless efforts of its great 
souls to make simple and plain their thoughts to the 
masses ; and after all, when death unloads them of 
their burden borne but a pace, they find that only 
one of all mankind understood them, — yet no, not 
one. 

Believing, as he undoubtedly did, like Socrates, that 
he was specially guided by the good spirit, he speaks 
with authority : — 

" If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father 
will love him, and we will make our abode with him. He that 
loves me not will not keep my sayings : and the word which 
you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. But the 
comforter, which is the spirit that the Father will send in my 
name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all the things 



100 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

that I have said to you to your remembrance. Peace I leave 
with you, my peace I give to you, and not as the world giveth. 
You have heard me say, I go away, and come again to you ; if 
you loved me you would rejoice because I say I go to the 
Father, for my Father is greater than I. 

" I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 
Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away, and 
every branch that bears fruit he purges, that it may bring 
forth more abundantly. Abide in me, and I in you. As the 
branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no 
more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you 
are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him brings 
forth much fruit ; without me you can do nothing. Herein is 
my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. So shall you be 
my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: 
continue in my love. If you keep my commandments you shall 
abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's command- 
ments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken to 
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might 
be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as 
I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that he 
lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you 
do what I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, 
for the servant knows not what his lord does ; but I call you 
friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have 
made known to you. You have not chosen me; but I have 
chosen you and ordained you : go, and bring forth fruit. Only 
one command I give you, that 3'ou love one another. 

" If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before 
you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own ; 
but because you are not of the world, it hates you. Remember 
that I said to you that the servant is not greater than his lord. 
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If 
they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. If I had 
not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now 
they have no cloak for their sin. They shall put you out of 
their synagogues : the time will come when he that shall kill 
you, will think that he does God's service. And this will they 
do because they have not known the Father nor me. I have 



CHRIST. 101 

told you this, that you may remember it when the time comes. 
But now I am going my journey to him that sent me, and 
none of you ask whither I go ? Because I have said this, 
sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the 
truth. It is good for you that I go away ; for were it not so, 
the comforter would not come to you. But if I go, I will send 
him to you. I have much to say to you ; but you cannot bear 
it now. Howbeit when the spirit of truth is come, it will guide 
you to all truth. It shall glorify me, for it shall reveal the 
truth 1 have taught. A little while and you shall not see me, 
and again a little while and you shall see me, because I go to 
the Father, and my spirit will live. 

" You mourn at this ? You shall, indeed, weep and lament ; 
but the world shall rejoice. But your sorrow shall be turned 
to joy. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow because 
her hour has come ; but as soon as she is delivered, she remem- 
bers no more the anguish for joy that a child is born into the 
world. And now, therefore, you have sorrow ; but I will see 
you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man 
shall take from you. I came into the world from the Father ; 
I leave the world, and go to the Father. Behold the hour now 
is when you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall 
leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is 
with me. I have said these things to you that you might 
have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation ; but be 
of good cheer : I have overcome the world." 

In this conversation he gives a summary of all his 
teaching. He claims to be greater only in degree than 
his hearers. He states plainly that he has told them 
all he knows. By love alone shall they be worthy of 
the name of his disciples. He will have no form, no 
ceremony, — only love. Spirit is everything. Were 
people only ignorant of crime, there were no sin. The 
great comforter will come to the good and the true ; 
and this great consoler is the spirit, the consciousness, 
of truth. And this spirit is from God himself. His 
forecast of the future is not surprising when we con- 



102 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

sider that what he foretells is nothing but an easy 
conjecture from what he himself has suffered. People 
will commit crime because they have not the spirit of 
truth in them. Such things have been from time out 
of mind, and appear to-day, now in American Boards, 
now in Episcopal conferences, and again in Presby- 
terian revision. All this is as far from Christ as north 
is from south. 

The Last Supper is over. After this touching con- 
ference all rise and pass out in silence. Perhaps now 
and then a whisper is heard, or a motion seen. The 
faces of all tell their suffering. The mental strain has 
been intense and almost too severe. The refreshing 
night air, peculiar to the far East, and the starlit 
heavens lighten the load, alas ! too heavy for mortal 
man. But the mental anguish has been too protracted 
to be thrown aside and forgotten readily. In silence 
the little band wander out into the hills, their leader 
buried in his own sad reflections, brooding maybe over 
his disappointment, perhaps gaining somewhat upon 
his lingering, heart-sick companions, or turning aside, 
from the path scarcely perceptible in the darkness. 
The final scene is familiar, — the ghastly band of cut- 
throats, the mock trial, the scattering of the faithful, 
the great master crowned with thorns, alone and 
silent. Oh the shame and the agony ! Alas ! the cry 
of anguish and disappointment : " Oh, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me ! " 

The cruel deed is done. The conscience-stricken 
rabble slink away in the darkness ; and the faithful, 
filled with terror and foreboding, imagine all manner 
of strange things and conjure up fearful omens, I 
care not to discuss the particulars of this awful death. 
A thousand and one things probably happened that 
nobody now knows about, a thousand things were said 



CHRIST. 103 

that have not come down to us. I cheerfully consign 
all this to the commentators and critics. I am con- 
cerned only with the burden of this great life. I 
care not for subtle discussion or philosophizing. The 
essentials are clearly apparent. He who runs may 
read. The details, uncertain at best, are of little or 
no account. But I cannot refrain from offering a slight 
summary of his character, as it appears from these 
prominent teachings which have been offered at some 
length. 

Christ's liberality and breadth of thought have been 
touched upon before. He was anything but a radical. 
He teaches by no theory of divinity. He is a gradu- 
ate of no theological school, disciple of no Gamaliel. 
His morality knows no set rules, his theology no 
creed or dogma. The simple words, love and spirit, 
take the place of creeds. He does not seek to rev- 
olutionize current opinions. He is rather a simple 
teacher. Like Socrates he talks with whomsoever he 
meets. Little groups form about him, and these 
swell to large crowds. He did not care to gain dis- 
tinction as the world goes. He thought not so much 
of founding a sect as of inculcating a moral. We can 
trace in his teachings the simplicity of a man who 
knows only Nature and what he has seen of men, and 
who draws from either source as it happens with the 
greatest freedom. Scholasticism and philosophy so- 
called are far removed. He had no more theoretical 
instruction than the humblest peasant. He preached 
from the fulness of the heart. When other words of 
sympathy for fallen virtue repentant and humble were 
wanting, he would only say, " Be of good cheer, thy 
sins are forgiven thee." If he was not in the mood 
for preaching, he would dismiss the people with his 
blessing. 



104 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

His disciples were like him, very unorthodox, 
very untheological, — only simple fishermen there by 
the lake, with whom he loved to associate. He tells 
them with rare wit that they shall have larger game, 
for he will make them fishers of men. Christ had 
no fear of men. Doubtless outcasts, repentant thieves, 
and arrant knaves obtained his grace and his sym- 
pathy without distinction. His very chosen may 
number such among them. 

He was of a roving disposition. He loved Nature, 
and found her a tender mother. Ever when op- 
pressed with care and disappointed in his hopes, he 
would retire to the beautiful shores of Galilee, or to 
the hills round about Jerusalem. Wherever you find a 
man ardently fond of natural beauty, you will always 
find one of superior ability in his special vocation. 

In Christ's mind everything took a practical, con- 
crete form. He rarely offers an abstract reflection. 
Though much if not most of his teaching is abstract, 
yet he puts the ideas in concrete form. And this has 
been a fruitful source of misapprehension. It was so 
when he lived, and is so now. His mind was simple ; 
"untutored" just expresses it. He created those 
primitive images of speech which are so common in 
early language and mythology. This simplicity is 
one of the beauties of early literature. 

He sought solitude, and loved it. But a love for 
solitude is not necessarily a desire for absolute isola- 
tion. He does not cut the knot of human existence ; 
he unties it. He retires indeed to the hills or the 
lake shore to think and commune with himself, but 
what is the burden of his reflection ? Mankind. 
From the flowers he obtains lessons for men. Suf- 
fering humanity was always his care. Eise, take up 
thy bed of afiSiction and care and sorrow, and walk, 



CHRIST. 105 

full of joy and good cheer, — this is his command to 
men. And the church, with little understanding and 
much clumsy, humorous obedience, proceeds to shoul- 
der its couch and travel, making slow progress, how- 
ever, burdened enough with the defective consciences, 
without the clumsy furniture of its members. 

Christ's parables are all drawn from affairs of daily 
life that came to his notice. And when he speaks of 
God he likens him to a king choosing his people from 
a vast throng, just as a shepherd separates the sheep 
from the goats. It is clear that Christ really had no 
such idea of a personal God. It is only a simple, 
homely figure that he uses. Such figures came on 
the spur of the moment, and served to illustrate 
a particular phase of thought. He used them with 
this single purpose, without regard to the possible 
inconsistencies and falsities, just as is always the 
case with one speaking without preparation. He 
loved to speak of the flowers and the birds and the 
foxes. Scientific classifications of animals never oc- 
curred to him. He did not consider that there were 
distinct classes, or that man was separate from all. 
With him Nature was one : all the universe was a 
great brotherhood and sisterhood. 

His language and his life seem beautiful, pure, and 
chaste. Not an unworthy thought or an unworthy 
motive appears. This is not so singular as at first it 
seems. All of us have known such characters. It 
has been my pleasure to know a few simple souls 
who, I believe, never entertained a selfish or un- 
worthy thought, and never stooped to meanness. 
And their memory I cherish. But this simplicity 
and purity and singleness of life are almost impos- 
sible to one whose whole life becomes antagonistic to 
current lines of thought and action. And it is right 



106 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

here that Christ's pre-eminence appears. He seemed 
rightly to appreciate all sides of life in a general way. 

His nobility was one of the most prominent char- 
acteristics. He must have been a man of great 
personal dignity and magnetism. No picture of him 
seems to succeed like that grand conception of Hoff- 
man, Christ with the Doctors, though no theme pre- 
sents more varied artistic opportunities. Hoffman 
himself fails adequately to picture his manhood. 
Lifelessness seems to be mistaken for mildness and 
humility. If ever any man was thoroughly in ear- 
nest, it was Christ. Humble, honest, and simple, it 
is true, but withal in sober earnest. Indeed, his in- 
tensity of purpose and action is at times almost 
fearful. 

Christ seems to have exerted a peculiar influence 
over men. He speaks with authority. He is de- 
cisive, and men obey instinctively or involuntarily. 
Sometimes this authoritativeness is startling and 
almost self-assertive. One day he went into the syn- 
agogue to preach, and chose a text from the Old Tes- 
tament : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; 
he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Then 
he closed the book, and handed it to the minister, and 
sat down. And when every eye was intently fixed 
on him to hear what he would say, he quietly begins 
thus : '^ This day is the scripture fulfilled in your 
ears.'^ 

Another similar statement is reported, after the 
condemnation and just before the crucifixion. It 
seems that a number of men and women followed 



CHRIST. 107 

Christ to the place of crucifixion ; and so great was 
the grief of the women that they gave way to tears 
on the short journey. Christ turned to them and 
said : " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but 
weep for yourselves and for your children." And he 
might have added, like Anaxagoras when bauished 
from Athens, "I have not lost Jerusalem, but Jeru- 
salem has lost me." 

Every genius possesses this peculiar quality, this 
self-assertive authority, in a greater or less degree. 
Oftentimes it seems but a bombastic self-assertion, 
but it is rarely such. As a matter of fact, the Jews 
considered Christ subject to this very vice, and said 
that he called himself God, and made himself equal 
with God. Blasphemy was imputed to him, and for 
it alone, ostensibly at least, he suffered death. This 
peculiar quality has always been misunderstood. Me- 
diocrity becoming envious of the influence of superi- 
ority, and charging it with conceit, — it is a common 
thiDg, and it is not surprising. But the instinctive 
authority of genius is far from this conceited self- 
assertion. Its essence is always external, not inter- 
nal; objective rather than subjective. It is authority 
directed, so to speak, to the particular point under 
consideration, and not to self, — an earnestness which 
loses self in contemplation of other things. The 
underlying thought remaining undetected or uncom- 
prehended leads people to misapprehension. They 
grasp at the form and not the substance. Individual 
peculiarity they perceive, and not the important truth 
it contains. 

Christ was conscious without doubt of this power 
over men. He may have enjoyed it. It is right that 
he should. One has a right to have a proper respect 
for and estimate of his own ability. Yet he never 



108 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

gloried in it. And only once do we find anything 
like triumph displayed. There seems to be a little 
of this near the closing scene. It is another subject 
worthy of a great artist. When the Jewish rabble 
appear armed with sticks and stones, Christ displays 
a noble dignity worthy of the greatest of the an- 
cients ; and as he rises to his full height and boldly 
confronts the band of cut-throats, the words rise to 
his lips unbidden: "Are ye come out as against a 
thief with swords and staves, for to take me ? I sat 
daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no 
hand on me." 

But this triumph rarely appears, or if it does, yet in a 
different way, no longer really triumphant. He reaches 
the highest dignity in common things. In being the 
servant of the world he is its master. Forgetting 
mortal life, he wins immortality. Getting beyond 
the vain things of the world and finding resources 
from within, we reach his fundamental idea. And 
yet the world is not despicable. Christ would be 
the last to say so. 

In his last days his manner seemed changed. He 
became a man of sorrows indeed. He did as before 
whatever came across his path, but his heart was 
well-nigh broken. High hopes and warm enthusi- 
asm for the practical realization of lofty ideals are 
commonly blighted. A noble, high-minded, deep- 
souled man can never be happy as other men are. 
To retire alone among the hills with his disappoint- 
ment, — this was his prayer, and it gave him new 
strength. Yet he did not fear death. A great pur- 
pose nerves the soul it lives in, so that no terrors can 
intimidate nor any woes overcome. 

He was loved and known by few. The repentant 
prostitute Magdalene loved him more than his family 



CHRIST. 109 

apparently. He was understood by none. His clear 
eyes penetrate j^our very soul in a rather confusing 
way, and at times they burn and there is a terrible 
flash of anger in them. Free from affectation of 
speech, he seems to have been manly in bearing and 
dignified in gesture. He was valiant for the truth, 
and bold in asserting it, patient in suffering for it, 
unwearied in laboring for it, unmoved as a rock. 
Though a severe reprover of hardened sinners, he 
was a mild and gentle admonisher of the erring. 
Above all, he recognized that fine thoughts and 
moral dissertations from those who have not worked 
and suffered are of little consequence ; that the ex- 
ample of an upright life will teach a more efficient 
virtue than many sermons. Christ realized that in 
this short life of ours little is learned from precept; 
that experience teaches a good deal, and example 
most of all. His great heart is to this day a sanctu. 
ary for all the wretched. 

Whoever does much in this world will do some- 
thing wrong. It has been said that great men are 
made chiefly of faults, — it might be better to say 
by faults. It is somewhat difficult to judge of the 
failings of Christ, vastly more so than to judge his 
virtues. The one side is conspicuous, and bears, as 
has been said, the peculiar impress of genius ; the 
other side, being common, has no such distinguish- 
ing mark. It is idle to deny that Christ was in- 
fluenced more or less by the opinions and manners 
of his age ; but just how much, is the question. It 
would be pleasant to say of him as Marlborough said 
of Bacon, he was so great a man that we do not re- 
member whether he had faults or not. 

I am unwilling to attribute specific failings when 
I cannot satisfy myself of their reality as applied to 



110 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Christ. I am sure that by far the greatest number of 
faults that appear in the records which we have, re- 
flect rather upon Christianity. Christ was not under- 
stood by his age or century, and his contemporaries and 
successors related many truths about him that never 
happened. Divinity as commonly understood was no 
claim of his, but the claim of his successors. He 
never assumed it ; but it was thrust upon him, and it 
has lowered him. That he ever claimed to work 
miracles is extremely doubtful. I am inclined to 
think not. It seems to me utterly inconsistent with 
the general character of his teachings. That he wit- 
tingly took advantage of existing conditions more or 
less peculiar, and permitted a superstitious people to 
think he had such power, I reject as unworthy of 
serious declaration, for the same reason. That he 
claimed to heal the sick and comfort the afflicted, 
I admit ; and I believe that he did so then, and that 
he has continued to do so down to this very day, but 
in a vastly different way and spirit from that in which 
the word was taken. 

There is an element of truth in all tradition. 
Christ's figures the people interpreted literally. His 
disciples constantly expected some great favor for 
their devotion. Had they not his promise of twelve 
thrones, and the judgment of the twelve tribes of 
Israel ? Already their hands itched for the reins 
of government, and they began to dispute among 
themselves as to who should be greatest and sit 
next to the great throne of the Master. One asked 
for the throne at the right, and another for that at 
the left hand, as if they were all arranged before 
their eyes. They constantly reminded Christ of 
their self-sacrifice and devotion in leaving all for 
him. They will fight to the death for him. And 



CHRIST. Ill 

soon they have a chance, and then " they all forsook 
him and fled." One does enter the crowd and look 
on at the trial ; but he conceals his identity, and 
thrice denies his chosen master, to whom he had 
sworn such faithful allegiance. Things had not 
turned out as they expected. Their twelve thrones, 
upon which in imagination they delighted to sit in 
judgment, came toppling down about their ears, and 
they no longer cared for seats on the master's right 
and left, though they might have had them for the 
asking, ay, without it had they been detected. His 
kingdom they little comprehended, nor his life 
eternal. Poor unfortunate fishermen and laborers, 
they expected principalities as rewards for faithful- 
ness, though after all at heart faithless ! 

That Christ expected a better and quicker appre- 
ciation of his lessons seems clear ; and that he died 
in bitter disappointment is indisputable. That he 
fancied that he was led by a spirit, a loving father, 
yet rather impersonal than personal, is certain. It is 
evident that this spirit was very similar to the demon 
of Socrates ; and I doubt if Christ really made more 
of it than Socrates did of the demon. That he ever 
pretended or sanctioned such nonsense as the im- 
maculate conception, is unworthy the thought of one 
who has even a little appreciation of Ms general 
teaching. He continually denies the popular opin- 
ion concerning his identity. Indeed deification came 
after he had passed away. Then it w^as that his 
mother became famous as the Virgin Mary. 

The charge of communism is brought against him, 
but it is idle to insist upon it. I challenge any one 
to find a single specific theory attributable to Christ. 
In this very absence of all theories of religion, mo- 
rality, and government, I find the surest indication of 



112 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

his greatness. If there is anything that is worthless 
in human affairs as a guide to right living, it is a set 
rule, an invariable maxim. Here is Christ's religion, 
— spirit ; here is his morality, — love. And he never 
specifies further ; he only gives examples of both. It 
is ridiculous to argue communism as his theory, be- 
cause his little band seems to have shared its scanty 
earnings or contributions. 

There is but one other theory worth mentioning 
in this connection ; namely, the theory of the atone- 
ment and forgiveness. A word will explain suf&- 
ciently this humbug. There is no reason to think 
Christ meant any more by forgiveness than we mean 
to-day when we use the word, ■— a renewal of love tem- 
porarily withdrawn. He states himself, in a sentence 
which remains to this day in common use, the unfail- 
ing certainty of what we call the law of cause and 
effect. "Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also 
reap," is repeated hundreds of times daily; and the 
words were probably Christ's. JSTo, Christ is never 
coming in the body to judge us. He is enthroned 
indeed, and rules the mightiest kingdom, the mind. 
Seeing, our sin begins and judgment comes ; and that 
too according as we see, and in proportion as we fail 
to live up to what we see. 

The real faults of this great man are forgotten, and 
a hundred absurdities, ridiculous virtues, ascribed to 
him, not one of which but would have been eagerly 
caught at for an accusation, and rightly, had he pre- 
tended to claim it, or even hinted its reality. Christ 
is so belittled in this way that it is well-nigh impos- 
sible to tell what he was. So it is ever: what the 
great ones do the less will prate about. 

Grant that Christ was hasty at times, suppose he 
was erratic, what of it ? Genius is always so. Faults 



CHRIST. 113 

are mere rags, and not the man at all. Men should 
be judged by the magnitude of their virtues, not by 
their faults. If all the flaws carping sceptics and 
bigoted priests ever laid at this great man's door are 
true, every one of them, together they would be but as 
a grain of sand in the mighty ocean of his virtues. 
The grand and sublime in morals, in art, in litera- 
ture, or in any field is apt to produce an abnormal 
exaltation, and I have no doubt that this appeared in 
the great master. It certainly does in the accounts 
given of him in the Scriptures, and its appearance 
there is a great argument for the general truth of 
the narrative. 

We of this age are too apt to decry originality. 
We call it eccentricity. Our social customs and 
forms tend to lessen individuality, and cause all 
men to be alike. It is a well-known fact that great 
men rarely come from social centres. We are too apt 
to consider mere faultless manners or gentlemanly 
graces the sole elements of real manhood. In truth, 
manly virtue is least in this. If one is to do great 
deeds, he must lay aside evening dress, so to speak. 
Real talent despises all such outward shams, and 
tends to err in the opposite direction. True noble- 
men rarely have titles or patents of nobility. 

There is a great deal of truth in the statement that 
great minds are apt to be too intense. Reproaches 
aimed at them have at least an apparent justification. 
Genius is likely to offend. It is n't agreeable to be 
conscious of another's superiority. Our ladies teach 
this truth well in the envy, bitterness, and petty 
hatred a beautiful woman will excite. The beautiful 
is apt to be humiliating as well as enchanting. As 
was said at the outset, we admire genius, but still 
we hate it. With the kindest intent, the tempest 

8 



114 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

would only moisten; it overwhelms. In general, re- 
forms and reformers are harsh. An immense tract 
of land would be a desert but for the Nile ; yet in 
the overflow there is woful destruction. Genius is 
excessive. Christ displays these extremes in the 
least degree, judged from a modern standpoint, but 
still they are apparent. 

If we can place ourselves contemporaneous with 
Christ, we may see this fact plainly. There is a 
peculiar shock in his statements. The multitude, 
and especially learned doctors, are startled and draw 
back involuntarily at times. Surprising in every- 
thing, in manner, in dress, in speech and thought, 
in images, in emotions and faith, — whatever might 
be the subject of his conversation, he astonished men. 
^^ Never man spake like this man" was the universal 
comment. People expected only an ordinary man, 
and they found a god. We offer our hand to a 
stranger, and are shocked when a Hercules seizes 
it and almost wrenches it off. Finally when we re- 
gain equilibrium, we assume a bold face, and, like 
the child raised to its father's shoulders, cry, " See 
how tall I am ! " 

Supposing even that Christ really uttered all the 
seemingly extravagant sentiments that are related 
of him, we must bear in mind that his whole life 
and energy were completely given to the work he 
had taken upon himself, and it is possible that tem- 
porary infatuation may have dethroned his usually 
calm judgment. The exaltation of a moment is mag- 
nified to the spirit of a life. Such excess is common 
among speakers, especially among those who are not 
in the habit of preparing their addresses. 

He seems at times to carry his ideas of faith to 
extremes, though I am of the opinion that much is 



CHRIST. 115 

said of faith in the New Testament that is the in- 
vention of generations later than that of Christ. 
Logical, scholarly argument is not to be found in 
Christ's conversations or sermons. Like every one 
who seeks to persuade simple-minded, ignorant peo- 
ple by word of mouth, he depended more upon 
rousing their feelings and gaining their sympathies 
than upon convincing their minds. Eeading over 
these brief parables in our calm, sober leisure, we 
naturally find inconsistencies among them. Each 
parable is not meant to be a complete, concise state- 
ment of his theology and morality. On the contrary, 
each is meant to illustrate but a single phase of life, 
or to inculcate a simple moral principle, as love or 
forgiveness. The conception of an instant is illus- 
trated by an image that happens to be near at hand. 
It is comical to witness the laborious efforts of 
theologians to find inner meanings and concise dog- 
matical doctrines in these simple tales, the birth of 
an instant. 

At times Christ is represented as harsh and horribly 
cruel in his sentiments. He realized that men would 
quarrel over his teachings. " I come not to send peace, 
but a sword," he may have said ; but this sword was 
a weapon against crime, though often becoming crimi- 
nal itself in the hands of his successors. That gentle- 
ness of his best moments, peculiarly his own, may 
have been lost at times, and no wonder. Sometimes 
strange things, incomprehensible to his hearers, are 
reported, and strange, inexplicable acts. Doubtless 
the more he saw of the world, the more its spirit net- 
tled him. His experience was beyond a doubt pain- 
fully enlightening. He may have become irascible 
at times. The Jews considered him possessed of the 
devil. He calls himself the son of God, and they 



116 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

pick up stones to throw at him. Towards the end he 
seems to have suffered people to think that he had 
performed miracles attributed to him, weary of fruit- 
less attempts to set their minds right. But what 
does all this amount to, even at its worst ? It is no 
part of the real teachings ; it is only the failings 
of his weaker moments. 

The sublime, noble thoughts of his better moments 
ring out clear and strong above all these irritable 
statements, which, if true, were worried from him 
by his stubborn, intractable enemies. These Jews 
reasoned as conservatives of all ages and times have 
reasoned. Here is a man who sets up his opinions 
against all the world ; and so plausibly does he pre- 
sent his views, mixing much truth with error, that 
the ignorant believe him, and threaten anarchy : we 
will put him to death to avoid political and social 
ruin. This is conservatism of all times. It imposes 
a penalty upon progress. The Locrians, actuated by 
the same feeling, placed a halter about the neck 
of the proposer of a new law, by which he was to be 
hanged in case his measure failed of adoption. " Cru- 
cify him, crucify him ! " is the conservative watch- 
word. " He is dead ; now we shall have peace." 

Thus these great minds, having finished the work 
given them to do, in death join the mysterious group 
of those who live in the tradition of man. Being 
no more present with us, we call them dead ; being 
unseen, they no longer live. Ah ! that is a vast 
mistake. Once dead, these men enter upon life. 
Oh, what a life is theirs ! That old chrysalis period 
we called life is forgotten ; its incidents are worth- 
less. These men have vastly more influence over us 
than they had. They were ; now they are. Common 
men^ having fallen asleep, rest free from all care and 



CHRIST. 117 

toil ; great men begin a never-ending work, a cease- 
less toil. They establish nations ; they construct 
literatures ; they upbuild societies ; they teach mo- 
ralities. Once dead, these great spirits are working, 
working, never ceasing. 

Crucify him ! Let him die the death ! He saved 
others ; himself he cannot save ! This is all very 
well for you, conservatives, fools, slaves. By this 
your own rule shall you receive righteous judgment. 
Come, it is time to die. It is your turn now. Take 
your bed of final disease ; summon the doctor, the 
coroner, the undertaker ; toll the bell a half-hour 
while the widow weeps ; put those flowers on the 
coffin ; there now, go to your rest, sleep, lie in the 
grave, rot. So be it. 

The great thinker begins life after death, rarely 
before. The body is indeed a prison. Death is the 
glorious resurrection of genius. The body somehow 
seems to stand between humanity and genius. Death 
comes, and simply sweeps this dust away ; and the 
light of genius, no longer obstructed, shines full and 
resplendent upon all men. 

It generally takes a few years, or perhaps centuries, 
for this light, quick as light travels, to reach and 
open the eyes of the multitudes. People persist in 
facing the darkness. If we have been accustomed 
to pray facing the east, it is hard to turn around to 
the west, though we know that the sunset is as grand 
as the sunrise. Still harder is it to pray only in 
spirit, regardless of east, west, north, and south, 
without beads, book, or bell. When one tells us that 
all these things are silly nonsense, we are apt to take 
a little more pains about the direction, and scrutinize 
the compass a little more carefully. If he insists, we 
kill him, and spitefully turn our backs to the light 



118 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

reflected. Finally we die, — quiet, simple, natural 
deaths ; and some of our children, unfortunate enough 
to be born with the light shining square in their 
eyes, multiply and in time replenish the earth. The 
sun sets, but in his going down he leaves a trail of 
light which guides the weary traveller to his distant 
home. Christ dying leaves a light which shall never 
dim, but always brighten. Henceforth he is king, 
not only of the Jews, but of all mankind. His sway 
is universal, his authority without limit, his power 
omnipotent. 

In this great man the world has one simple lesson, 
his own teaching by word and act. How glorious 
it would be if mankind would master this simple 
teaching ! A genuine, heartfelt love for goodness is 
above all speculative doctrines and theories. Purity 
of heart, not brilliancy of intellect, shall gain grace. 
The spirit is the act. Blessed are the pure in heart, 
for they see God. It is a grand thing to have such 
a soul once a century or millennium. The vision is 
magnificent, the ascension glorious. He led a short, 
trying, troubled life, and passed away, leaving only a 
word behind him : that word enkindles and becomes 
a guiding-star forever. 



CHRISTIANITY. 119 



III. 

CHRISTIANITY. 

Sequor. (I follow.) 

AFTEE Christ, Christianity ; but far, far removed. 
It was born of the prevailing idea among the 
humble followers of Christ, that a great kingdom of 
God was on the point of establishment, a kingdom 
where these faithful followers should find rest and 
eternal happiness, a place of primitive simplicity and 
innocence, a reward for the sufferings and labors of 
saints. The disciples had declared that Christ said 
that many of his hearers would never taste of death; 
that he would come again within the life of man, and 
crown his triumph by the founding of an eternal 
kingdom, more lasting and more powerful than that 
worldly empire whose proud capital, built on seven 
hills, assumed the sounding title of the Eternal City. 
So the early Christians believed that any day, any 
moment, might enthrone them on the seats of glory, 
the only goal, the only worthy culmination, the only 
righteous hope, of human existence. 

But the dream was not fulfilled; the promise, if 
such there were, failed, and the prophecy has never 
been accomplished. The holy kingdom has never yet 
been consummated. Nevertheless an uninterrupted 
line of the faithful, running down through the ages, 
has looked and hoped and waited for the end. Every 
generation of the true believers has announced the 



120 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

near realization of the prophecy ; most have fixed 
the date. So prominent a part, indeed, has this great 
feature of Christianity taken, that many profound 
and far-seeing students of civilization have found in 
it alone the source of the long-continued and vigorous 
life of this great religion. 

The mighty master, the great seer, about whom is 
woven the web of Christianity, had passed away. 
Many great things he had spoken to his disciples and 
to the multitudes of ignorant people. Little did he real- 
ize the profound effect of his words, or the many ways 
in which they would be taken. Instantly putting the 
thought of the moment, readily using the image near- 
est at hand to throw its added light upon the quick- 
born conception, he never dreamed such would create 
a theology ; seeking by simple stories to impress in- 
dividual minds, he never imagined such would be 
gathered in a great sacred book to sway the world as 
the divinely inspired Word of God. 

After a few years had elapsed, Christ, like all other 
great men of antiquity, not to say of all times, became 
traditional. He became the subject of countless 
legends, most of which Christianity has been forced 
to reject. Affection did not linger to question these 
stories : the more wonderful and mysterious they 
were, the better. To surround anything, be it never 
so silly or monstrous, with the veil of a mysterious 
secrecy, is to invest it with an irresistible charm 
which humanity has always failed successfully to 
resist. False prophets and false gods, requiring 
curious ceremonies, working strange miracles, have 
been from the beginning, and probably will endure to 
the end. Whoever can win people to his views, and 
lead them to think he knows a secret road to heavenly 
bliss surely kept from common knowledge, and that 



CHRISTIANITY. 121 

he possesses the key, as it were, of heaven itself, and 
can let in or keep out whomsoever he will, — such an 
one shall be master indeed. Everything that "man 
holds dear, — freedom, honor, fortune, even life itself, 
— all sink into utter insignificance compared with this 
sweet dream. People love the marvellous. Credulity 
certainly has been more powerful than reason. It is so 
to-day, though occupying a different field than in the 
past. People moreover seem to love to be humbugged. 
There g^ems to be a peculiar fascination even in 
awakening to deception. 

It is not to be inferred that the successors of Christ 
ever realized that they had been mistaken. Quite to 
the contrary, they died as strong in the faith as they 
had lived. Once having thoroughly mastered an idea, 
ignorant people never lose it. Having thoroughly 
made up their- minds, you can no more convince them 
of a mistake than you can change the course of 
nature. Much good sense lay at the bottom of Chris- 
tianity^ and to it is due the real credit. Philosophy 
and logic never convince masses. Positive natures, 
even in greatest men, reason without logic. The 
early Christians did not seek to convince reasoners 
and scholars ; they addressed common men. People 
of low estate in life easily despise the manners of the 
high ; the poor in spirit easily entertain hopes of 
future greatness. Hence these simple people were 
already partisans. 

Among such people the point is to make an im- 
pression, to rouse their feelings, and stir up their 
prejudices. The early audience had not mind enough 
to comprehend a subtle argument, nor had their teach- 
ers mind enough to frame one. Proof is the last thing 
to use with such material. It is the very thing to leave 
out. Repetition of the same things again and again. 



122 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the formation of watchwords, mottoes, and party 
cries, the use of symbols forcible and striking, ex- 
amples that catch the eye and ear, — such are im- 
pregnable arguments to the populace. Once gaining 
their attention, conviction follows, and in a moment 
they will continue on in the line indicated of their 
own accord. They will shout and yell, talk j^ou 
blind, say anything, do anything under the sun in the 
range of their vision. If there is opposition, answer 
is not necessary. Scorn and ridicule are better. Oppo- 
sition, real, good, solid argument, is the very thing to 
strengthen their opinions, and they will get angry, 
double up their fists, and fight for their truth. Such 
is the reason of the revivalist, ancient or modern, and 
it never yet has failed to convince. Of course there 
is a foundation of truth in all this, though often very 
slight ; and it must be said that Christianity is re- 
markably rich in truth, considered apart from its 
mere theories. 

The old Hebrew faith attracted few recruits. An 
uncreated and, to the multitude, unseen, incompre- 
hensible, though omniscient and omnipotent, god 
gained few proselytes. Common men will have 
rather the old gods of Paganism, real and tangible, 
if immoral. Christianity borrowed from Paganism 
in part, and supplied what was wanted. God, in 
human form, born in a manger, laboring at a trade, 
walking and talking with men, sharing their sorrows, 
healing their infirmities, promising a heaven of rest 
and bliss, dying on the cross, rising from the dead, 
and ascending in glory on high, — triumphed here 
below over the bigotry of theologians, the pride of 
Stoics, the pomp and show of royalty, and the gleam- 
ing arms of legions. 

Christianity borrowed from Paganism. So every 



CHRISTIANITY. 123 

faitli borrows from its predecessor. There has 
never been a religion that has not had a demigod, — 
a being half god and half man. Mary is but a re- 
modelled Pagan goddess ; Christ but a more moral 
Jupiter. Ancient gods were always having illicit 
amours among the children of men. The idea of an 
immaculate conception is as old as time itself. In- 
deed, the Greeks had a goddess of truly spotless 
purity, for Minerva sprang full-grown from the head 
of Zeus. And this, I think, is the greatest personal 
deity that has ever been created by the human mind, 
certainly in its primal conception. But an immacu- 
late conception like that which the Virgin Mary ex- 
perienced, has its perfect counterpart in the remote 
tradition of the oldest known race. Buddhistic Maya- 
Devi, foreseeing her destiny, retires to seclusion. 
Bodhisatva enters her womb in a semi-conscious 
dream, and when she awakens, she is filled with 
joy, — truly blessed of women, like her later imitator. 
And indeed Bodhisatva himself is much like Christ. 
• There is little difference in divinity of all ages and 
races. Christ himself never hinted at any such story 
of his conception. He seems to have cared little for 
his people, slighting rather than honoring them. 
From what we know of him, he would probably 
have laughed such a theory to scorn. As a great 
truth, it is too ridiculous and stupidly absurd to oc- 
cupy the serious attention of an intelligent mind of 
the present. 

Christianity, though established after Christ, runs 
a long way back of him. Its founders naturally 
adopted the theories of their fathers when they had 
not Christ to draw from, and so we have the old 
Hebrew faith at foundation. They merely tacked 
on to this old traditional history the new dispensa- 



124 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

tion as they understood it. The Jews had long been 
awaiting a Messiah, just as every nation has in one 
form or another ; and though, as a people, they re- 
jected Christ as such, and continue to do so at 
present, yet the disciples of Christ persisted that he 
was the promised king, and in candor it must be 
confessed that they won the day. 

It is important only to notice the prominent the- 
ories and features of Christianity. While a religion 
is made up of details, yet each minute accretion re- 
flects but little of the real characteristics of the 
aggregate. A palace may be built of pieces of wood, 
but still one would hardly imagine it possible, were 
it not a matter of common knowledge, from the sight 
of a growing tree or a floating log. We may best 
gain a comprehensive, practical view of Christianity 
by standing off and looking at its teachings in the 
aggregate. 

We shall stand on better ground in dealing with 
the Christian system than we do in attempting to 
determine the doctrines and ideas of Christ ; for 
while there must be considerable doubt as to what 
and how much we shall attribute to Christ, there 
can be none as to the doctrines attributable to his 
followers as a body. Whatever we find in the 
Bible, at least, is Christian, whether it be of Christ 
or not. With abundant reason, I think, we believe 
that much is asserted in the New Testament that is 
without precedent or sanction or suggestion on the 
part of Christ. But whether this be true or not, 
there can be not a shadow of doubt that it is all 
Christian. If Christ said all, why, then it was 
adopted by his followers, and the Church has set 
its seal upon it; if he said part only, they adopted 
that part, and invented the rest ; if he said none of 



CHRISTIANITY. 125 

it, then they invented it all, and sealed it as the 
word of God. 

First, then, it adopts bodily the old Hebrew theory 
— for that matter, the general theory of antiquity as 
well — of a golden age, paradise, or period of abso- 
lute innocence, purity, and worldly perfection. It 
differed essentially from Paganism only in an en- 
hanced morality. It has been said before that in 
Paganism morality was secondary ; in Christianity 
it is promoted to the first place. On consideration, 
it is apparent that there is no real change of absolute 
principle here. The difference is only in degree. 
Understanding that morality appears in both systems, 
however insignificant it may be in one, such a con- 
clusion must follow. Christianity is but the natural 
successor of Paganism. 

In the beginning the world was all purity and love- 
liness, — a paradise, or garden of Eden, wherein 
flowers blossomed and fruits ripened spontaneously, 
needing no cultivation or care. The lion and the 
lamb lay down together. Death was unknown, and 
passion and change. But the first man sinned, it 
matters not how ; and death is the wages of sin. 
Thence follow all worldly calamities. The whole 
world, but now a paradise, becomes a hell. Lusts 
and passions wrought woful destruction. Still, the 
nobler nature of mankind is not utterly lost. The 
fruits shall no longer grow without cultivation, but 
by the sweat of his brow man may conquer external 
nature ; and so by watchful and persistent exercise of 
the will he may conquer unruly passions. Man is 
fallen, but is left with a rope by which to climb. 
This necessity of physical work is a curse ; this re- 
quirement of mental exertion, a penalty. 

This, without doubt, is one of the features of Bib- 



126 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

lical Christianity. Of course it is clear that many- 
advanced and liberal theologians deny that this is 
Christianity at all, though I have little doubt that 
many might be found to admit it a fair statement. 
And right here it may be well to point out the fact 
that Christianity is a growth. The Bible is the con- 
stitution of Christianity ; but constitutions oftentimes 
undergo a development which is extensive. This 
development is rarely the simple and direct effect 
of the constitution. Christianity is quite as much 
what civilization has made it as what its constitution 
has made it ; so we have to thank or revile ourselves 
for its present form. 

The apostle Paul, Calvin and Luther, John Knox, 
Jonathan Edwards, Phillips Brooks, and Minot J. 
Savage all represent different stages of this develop- 
ment. The word " Christian " has acquired a mean- 
ing peculiarly its own. It hardly means "like 
Christ," in its ordinary acceptation. Mr. Savage 
would strenuously deny that vicarious atonement is 
like Christ, yet freely admit that it is " Christian," 
as the word is ordinarily understood. The Chris- 
tian of to-day, like Christ or not, though consigning 
heathen to the bottomless pit of hell, is yet rarely 
the same man as he who paved hell with infant 
skulls, or he who literally had tussles with the devil 
years ago. In other words, Christianity proper is 
not to-day a living faith. It is a dead form ; and 
this must be so as long as the Bible is its infallible 
constitution. 

Christianity is not Christ-like, and never was ; and, 
I think, never can be with its present constitution. 
Christianity comes from the authors of the Bible, not 
from Christ. Biblical Christianity, or at least the 
new dispensation, is of much later date than people 



CHKISTIANITY. 127 

are apt to think. It dates from the Council of Nice, 
when the constitution and by-laws were settled upon 
and fixed for all time. It is not the work of Christ, 
nor yet that of the apostles. Doubtless they did 
much toward it, but the mighty Christian Church 
really established Christianity. Protestantism changed 
the faith but little. It merely substituted its pecu- 
liar ideas for other and older and oftentimes better 
ones. Christ never laid down such a theory of life 
as has just been stated. He offers no explanation 
of the origin of the world, or of sin or death. The 
old Hebrew law which he denounced gives this ex- 
planation. He says that sin is death, moral death ; 
and no one will deny it. How sin came into the 
world, he does not attempt to explain. The Scrip- 
tures do not even claim that he offered any such 
explanation, or any at all. The later Fathers make 
the statements after the ancient traditions rejected by 
Christ. Theirs is the claim. Christ does not even 
define sin. He often gives examples of it. It is 
clear that sin to his mind was a choice of the wrong 
when the right was evident and comprehended. The 
idea that sin is an inherent quality of mankind is a 
vastly different thing. The idea that man is born 
into this world a sinner and a criminal belongs to 
Christianity, not to Christ. He flatly denies it. 

Christianity, considering man sinful by nature, and 
the world miserable and forsaken of Cod, quite natu- 
rally despised both. The world and life had come 
to be so unbearable to the early Christians that they 
determined to have nothing more to do with either. 
Neither was worthy of attempts at improvement ; 
and so they abandoned both to the devil, concentrat- 
ing their hopes on the world to come. 

Christianity believes the world is ever growing 



128 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

worse, and will continue to grow worse, until such a 
state of corruption shall be reached that God in rage 
shall blot it out forever. This is the general teaching 
of orthodoxy at present. "Beautiful as the world 
can be, and fair to the external eye, j^et to the eye of 
God its iDuer life is wicked and corrupt. When sin 
came, heavenly purity and holiness fled. When man 
fell from God, he fell unto himself. We all have 
this burden laid upon us ; none can escape. When a 
Christian becomes assimilated to the world, the evil 
communications corrupt his piety. Paul understood 
this, and said: ^Be not conformed to the world. The 
world is anti-Christ, and friendship with the world is 
enmity against God.' " ^ 

In order to be consistent, Christianity must teach 
mortification of the flesh. In order to inherit the 
perfect kingdom of God, it is necessary to forsake the 
world, to hate one's mother and brethren. Marriage 
itself is an evil ; human life and pleasure are but a 
curse, a trial, a test of righteousness. Eeal life comes 
afterwards. So fully convinced of this were the early 
Christians that thousands of them — real, true be- 
lievers, and no half-hearted parasites — sought death 
often at their own hands. 

All this is as far from Christ as anything can well 
be. Yet this statement is said to have been made 
word for word by Christ: "If any man come to me, 
and hate not his father and mother and wife and 
children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own 
life also, he cannot be my disciple." For one, I do 
not believe he ever said it. I believe he is misquoted, 
or that the statement is a pure invention, because it 
is wholly out of harmony with his general teaching. 
Without doubt, he said and did a thousand things 

1 Dr. Cuyler, 1891. 



CHRISTIANITY. 129 

we know nothing about, and never shall. We have 
to nse our judgment in just this way day after day 
in our business or pleasure. . But men judge differ- 
ently. Judgment depends largely upon environment. 
I merely give my opinion, asking for it only what 
seems reasonable, seeking to force it upon no one. 

It is unreasonable to hold that Christ ever ex- 
pressed any such idea as these Avords convey, and 
they are perfectly plain, because it is in flat con- 
tradiction of his general line of thought. Honest, 
earnest men do not declare a positive and a negative 
of the same thing in a breath. And this is false 
rather than its contradictory, because the evidence 
against it is overwhelming. It is the idea of a nar- 
row, bigoted radical and misanthrope, while the other 
belongs to a great-souled genius. Other sayings of 
like effect are attributed to Christ, all of which must 
be rejected in the same way. 

It is needless to enter into details. The substance 
is all that is essential. The ISTew Testament makes 
practically two declarations as to what Christ said of 
human life. The one appears in numerous character- 
istic stories, represented to have been told by Christ 
to the multitude. The ideas to be gathered from 
these short tales are highly optimistic. They are 
grand, noble sentiments, such as appear in the highest 
literature of all times and all races. They are expres- 
sions concerning life of that peculiar nature and class 
which have always tended to make mankind better and 
nobler. Cheerfulness, love, and helpfulness appear in 
this class of sayings. 

The other class is to be found in explanations of 
these characteristic stories, and incidentally in re- 
ported conversations. They often appear in such a 
way as to create discord, noticeable and violent at 

9 



130 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

times. This latter class often suggests interpolation ; 
often tliey are the frank, open explanations of the 
writer. Their character is rather pessimistic, even 
extremely so at times. The two cannot stand together. 
Both cannot be true of Christ. He cannot have been 
an optimist and a pessimist at once. It may well be 
that he expressed harsh opinions at times, but Chris- 
tianity has made this the pervading spirit ; not that 
Christianity is all pessimism, but it rather belittles 
life than appreciates it. It disregards life as of little 
or no account, rather than cherishes it as worthy 
of righteous desire. This is rather Christian than 
Christ-like. 

The atonement theory, the second feature of Chris- 
tianity to be noticed, naturally follows the interpre- 
tation of life already given. Christ came into the 
world, sent by God, — in fact, the son of God assum- 
ing human form, — solely to save the world from 
utter damnation ; on his part a free, voluntary sacri- 
fice temporarily of the delights of heaven and divine, 
everlasting bliss. He proposed to bear the sin and 
crime of the world, if the world would permit him, so 
that it might be spotless, without sin, absolutely pure, 
as if it had never known evil. Though sin has made 
us scarlet, we shall be whiter than snow. 

This is a fair statement of the theory. It sprung 
from words undoubtedly uttered by Christ, who in all 
probability said again and again, in form or substance, 
that his mission was to save the lost, to heal the sick, 
and comfort the af&icted. From general statements 
like these, this great Christian theory arose, and it 
finally became the corner-stone of the true faith. 
Without this theory of atonement, Christianity loses 
its characteristic mark; it is no longer Christianity, 
but ethics. 



CHRISTIANITY. 131 

Christ, then, came to save the world. But on what 
condition does this salvation depend ? Let us read 
the law. " He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 
This has come to be the criterion. This is the oath 
to which we subscribe. Christianity is not only offered 
to all, but each individual must accept it, or woe be 
to him. It has the peculiar character at once of a 
gift graciously bestowed, and of an obligation solemnly 
enjoined. 

Curiously enough, this word "damned" did not 
mean half so much as it came to signify. Damna- 
tion, to the mediaeval or modern mind, means really a 
pretty serious thing. It suggests fire and brimstone, 
torment and torture unceasing, pain and sorrow with- 
out end, — an awful, everlasting punishment. Indeed, 
so significant is it to-day, that when we fairly lose 
our reason and judgment in bitterest passion against 
our enemies, we wish them "damned." This is truly 
an awful word. The Scriptural writers have given it 
this awful signification. 

By faith alone we may be saved. An examination 
into this salvation reveals a peculiar and ingenious 
preservation. Christianity seems to have carried its 
doctrine of faith to its logical, or illogical, extreme. 
It has the merit of consistency at least. By faith we 
are saved, and by faith alone. We must accept grace 
on the terms prescribed. No matter what kind of 
lives we lead, if only we have faith in the inspired 
gospel of Christianity, we shall inherit eternal bliss. 
He who denies this gospel — that is, disbelieves it — 
be his life never so pure and helpful, shall inherit 
eternal punishment. 

Some will find this statement too limited. They 
will insist that faith without works will not win 



132 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

grace, and that this is expressly declared. But after 
all is said about works and the necessary co-existence 
of faith, we are forced to the conclusion that faith 
is the redeeming virtue. If not, how can repentance 
come at the point of death ? How about the poor 
thief on the cross ? Eleventh-hour repentance abso- 
lutely fixes the standard of redemption. A dead 
man can do little work. By faith we are saved ; 
without faith we are damned. In this Christianity 
is like all other religions ; it assumes that one's be- 
lief is in one's power, whereas belief must follow 
judgment. This is a point at which dogmatic Chris- 
tianity signally and completely fails, and abandons 
the simpler teaching of Christ. It deems that meri- 
torious in the highest degree which is worthy of 
not the slightest commendation, because beyond our 
volition. 

But this is not all. It is enough, indeed, for those 
who disbelieve. Let us see what salvation is for 
believers. Have they been sinful in life, has every 
day been a day of crime, every hour an hour bring- 
ing sorrow and suffering to others ? Nevertheless, 
the moment they have faith in the inspiration and 
truth of the words printed on this paper, all is 
washed away at death, and they are as sinless as 
babes ; yes, even the taint of original sin is washed 
away. All the responsibilities of crime are taken 
away. One wonders what can become of the effects 
of this same crime upon innocent sufferers. There 
seems to be no provision for that. Perhaps it is 
lost in the joy of redemption. This is not Christ, 
and none but a bigot will call it so. 

Bepeatedly in other passages Christ is made to say 
that he does not judge man at all. That is not his 
place 5 he comes to save. But there is a judge, he 



CHRISTIANITY. 133 

says, and what is it ? " He that rejects me and re- 
ceives not my words has one that judges him, — the 
words I have spoken, they shall judge him in the 
last day." A very Daniel come to judgment ! And 
what does he say of baptism ? Is that one of his 
dogmas ? Was he ever baptized as the word goes, 
think you ? They say he was, and tell a pretty 
story about it. But what do they make him say on 
another occasion ? " Can you drink of the cup that 
I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism with 
which I am baptized ? " Does this refer to water ? 
Is it total immersion, or sprinkling ? Is there any- 
thing about infant baptism here ? It seems to me 
there can be no doubt here as to what we shall as- 
cribe to Christ and what to Christianity. It seems 
a very simple question. 

As has been said, this great theory of salvation 
was constructed undoubtedly from what Christ really 
did say, and his thought is clear and distinct. It 
appears again and again in his reported sayings. It 
is forgiveness pure and simple, as we forgive our 
brothers. Nothing more nor less than this has been 
the source of the great stumbling-block of the faith- 
ful and infidel alike. Christ's forgiveness is no sus- 
pension of law. It is merely an ideal renewal of 
love, a beautiful conception. It is a grand exercise 
of that common, simple charity of which we see so 
many examples day after day. Our little children 
are disobedient at times, and with all the love that 
mothers only know, they are punished by a with- 
drawal of love. " Mamma won't love you any 
more," — how much it means to a child ! The little 
fellow drops his head and repents. And then there 
is a brightening up ; smiles appear through tears ; 
the disobedient child is restored to love, and shares 



134 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

mother's sunshine with the other children, — a pretty 
sight, a sacred punishment. 

And this is Christ's own story, that of the prodigal 
son. The prodigal is not placed above his brother, 
but " this thy brother was dead, and is alive ; he was 
lost, and is found." " What woman having ten pieces 
of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle 
and sweep the house, and search diligently till she 
find it ? And when she has found it, she calls her 
friends and neighbors together, saying, Eejoice with 
me, for I have found the piece which I had lost." 
To be sure, more or less is said about silver here ; 
but there is no bargaining with angels, or friends 
and neighbors. I can find nothing good said about 
a great church and a powerful priesthood. I do, 
indeed, hear w'bnderfully vigorous denunciation of 
both. 

Oh, no ! Christian redemption is nine tenths trum- 
pery and nonsense, though extremely convenient and 
lucrative for priests. That word " redemption " is 
really a good word. There is a real sanctified in- 
genuity about it. Pagan priests used to laugh in 
the faces of their audience : is there not a peculiar 
Christian smile or a Christian wink in this ? " Here," 
cries the priest, " Paradise for sale ! " The people 
crowd up and buy, without covenant or memorandum 
or warranty, though they know they cannot gain title 
to real estate but by written deed or devise. It is 
not law ; the Statute of Prauds intervenes, and they 
know it. Nor is it reason ; for who wants an un- 
defended, a bogus title ? Yet they crowd up and 
purchase. 

This is no way to gain real estate in heaven. Most 
purchasers are swindled, shamefully cheated. And 
yet there are some fine speculators in these heavenly 



CHRISTIANITY. 135 

lots. I do not mean the priests. Quite generally they 
are but auctioneers, and sell for a commission or on 
salary, though now and then you find a shrewd one 
who is both speculator and auctioneer, retaining both 
commission and profit. But there is a large class 
of speculators here who buy low to sell high ; and 
I am told their profits are enormous at times. The 
time was, indeed, when this kind of brokerage was 
open and conspicuous. Speculators were not ashamed 
of their trade. Tetzel, reputed to have been one of 
the greatest of such, scorned concealment, and his 
trade was enormous. In late years the thing has 
been covered up. A mysterious air has prevailed over 
the business, which has sternly forbidden question. 
The bucket shop has made its appeara;nce, and is 
full worse tlian that which it supersedes. The trade 
has spread far be3^ond mere indulgences. It is not 
confined to any class or sect. Selling doves in the 
temple ? This is a bigger trade than that. 

Christ's death, then, has enabled or aided a massive 
swindling enterprise. Not that religious gaming was 
not known before ; the sale of doves for sacrifice just 
mentioned, to say nothing of " tithes " and " laborers' 
hire," was before Christ ; and Christ is on record as 
overturning the tables of these early traders, and 
driving them before him like sheep. And yet Chris- 
tianity points to this still as the great highway to 
salvation. We hear a good deal about trusts now- 
adays, though not half enough in praise of them ; 
few will believe me when I say there never was such 
a gigantic, greedy, grasping trust as that mighty cor- 
poration, Christianity, more stupendous if anything 
than Paganism. 

After the atonement comes the resurrection. One 
of the narrators of this great curiosity states with 



136 CHRIST vs. CHEISTIANITY. 

a charming simplicity, which argues well for his 
sincerity, that about five hundred saw this remark- 
able life in death, most of whom, he honestly states, 
have fallen asleep. One cannot help thinking that 
all were dozing when they saw this vision. 

Now, it is upon this alleged resurrection and ascen- 
sion largely that the Christian doctrine of heaven 
and hell rests. Christ is to come to judge the quick 
and the dead. Of course there is nothing new about 
this, nothing peculiarly original with Christianity in 
the idea. Christ's doctrine of the future was very 
general. He has little to say about it explicitly any- 
way. He rather avoids it, rightly concerning himself 
about this life, which he tried to make better and 
nobler. His idea of immortality has been spoken of 
before, and there is no need of repetition. 

He may have spoken of heaven and hell ; he may 
have used the very terms, and added the popular con- 
ceptions. But this is by no means a valid indication 
of his implicit belief in either. Many people now 
speak of both who have no faith in either. They 
furnish very convenient figures at times, and as a 
matter of fact most people of all times have so used 
them. Very few have given much credence to either 
since time began. Most people would give more for 
a day of earth than for a thousand years of eternity. 

It seems advisable to treat these two theories 
together. Though infinitely far apart, they are yet 
inseparable. It must be understood that the Chris- 
tian, Biblical heaven which the faithful have sworn 
by, is a very different place from the idealized, ab- 
stract conception of the present. Of heaven the only 
full description to be found in the Bible occurs in 
K-evelation. 

Here is a fair description of the paradise which 



CHRISTIANITY. 137 

awaited tlie faithful believer of antiquity : a heaven 
physical or concrete, sensuous, full of marvels, with 
streets studded with gems and paved with gold, and 
palaces of silver and precious metals. This is the 
heaven which many people now expect to enjoy 
after death. It is what the Bible promises. What 
a curious place of absurdities ! I am sure I never 
could be happy there, and I do not want to go to 
such a place. To the uninspired it appears to be a 
peculiar place of speaking animals, and of monstrous 
shapes of enormous size and remarkable character. 
There seems to be a good deal of singing without 
much harmony. 

Joined with this is a strange, insipid bliss or hap- 
piness. The angels all have tlie same cast of fea- 
tures, meaningless, and stupidly beatific. To be sure, 
they have wings, — a convenience for which mortals 
have ever craved, — but a pinch of common-sense is 
worth all the wings that ever helped man or angel 
to fly. This one characteristic of wings is the only 
addition to humanity that can be found. Most of 
the other qualities are detractions. I have never 
yet seen or heard of an angel half so interesting or 
enlightened as the average woman here on earth. 

Hell is a better place altogether than heaven. 
There is some heart, some real feeling here. It is 
now a lake of fire, now a bottomless pit of burning 
sulphur, now an endless void of impenetrable dark- 
ness, and again a seething caldron of red-hot pitch, 
a horror undying, unquenchable, eternal. ^' There 
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth," " Their 
worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched," — 
these expressions are full of meaning. There is no 
namby-pambyism in hell. This is Christianity, this 
is orthodoxy. 



138 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Christ's heaven consists of those whose natures are 
pure and true, like the nature of childhood. An ob- 
jective eternal life he denies. The reward of the 
good shall be the consciousness of right ; the con- 
demnation of the bad shall be the reproach of their 
own lives. God is for the living, not for the dead. 
Whenever Christ speaks of any other kind of heaven 
or hell, it is clearly figurative. The separation of the 
bad and the good is like the separation of the wheat 
and the tares, one to be saved and the other to be 
burned. The world is like a net containing good and 
bad fish, — the good to be gathered into vessels and 
the bad to be cast away. 

But it is not to be denied that other sayings are 
attributed to Christ. It is said that Jie gave many 
signs by which his coming might be known. The 
sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her 
light, stars shall fall, and the earth shall be shaken. 
Then the Son of man, so called, shall appear in clouds 
and glory, amidst hosts of angels, attended with 
sounding trumpets. Or again Christ is made dis- 
tinctly to promise his disciples, those that have 
toiled and suffered with him, thrones of glory, yea, 
twelve thrones of judgment, one for each of the 
twelve tribes of Israel. Woe be to Israel if it is to 
appear before these judges ! 

Christ again is made to deny all these things. 
He declares that no sign shall ever be given, and 
angrily chides people for expecting such silly mani- 
festations. He tells his disciples in all earnestness 
that they may indeed undergo the baptism he has 
experienced, one far different from what they im- 
agined, but thrones and principalities are not his to 
give. Christianity is full of inconsistency. It sim- 
ply amounts to this : the zealous authors of the faith 



CHRISTIANITY. 139 

overreaclied themselves in their enthusiastic desire to 
glorify one who needed no such praise as they could 
give. This conduct is as common as the air we 
breathe. The only strange thing about it all is 
that cool heads and experienced should be so easily 
deceived. 

Prayer is one of the principal doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. It seems to have entered the system from 
the earliest days, but during the Middle Ages it was 
probably greatly extended. It became a great source 
of church revenue. When one of the faithful died, 
prayers were continually said over his dead body. 
When a notorious villain died, prayer would lessen 
his torment. For a specified sum of money a certain 
number of prayers would be repeated. A price-list 
was generally understood. It would be difficult to 
overestimate the important part which prayer as- 
sumes in the Christian system. Eradicate the atone- 
ment from the system, and it is ruined theoretically ; 
eradicate the form of prayer, and the whole religion 
is practically destroyed. No established religion the 
world has ever seen but would prove a failure with- 
out this form of prayer. In Christianity the com- 
mand is given to pray without ceasing. The efficacy 
of prayer is especially prominent. Nothing can with- 
stand it. Christ is made to say : '' Whatsoever you 
shall ask in my name, it shall be given you." 

But Christ never taught prayer in that form which 
has come down to us, in the form common to Pagan- 
ism. His prayer took the form of an inner com- 
munion, not that of an open petition to a king. 
Eetire to the secrecy of your closet, and your Pather 
who sees in secret shall reward you openly. Prayer 
in his mind was well formulated as only communion, 
reflection alone and free from interruption. 



140 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The intended bride sits alone at twilight, not idly 
and listlessly musing, but deeply pondering, earnestly 
wondering of the future. Just so the young man who 
sees duty before him, harsh, uncompromising, sits in 
retirement buried in reflection, his head in his hands. 
" ' To be or not to be, that is the question.' Shall I 
meet this trial and overcome this temptation ? It is 
hard, it will cost me friends and prosperity. To yield 
is easy and pleasant, and who will know ? I can hide 
it by a simple deception, not a palpable fraud. Fie 
on honor ! everybody has it but he who deserves it. 
There is time enough later, and perhaps it will be 
easier then. I wonder if anybody has heard me ; I '11 
steal away out of this silence, and then I can settle 
it. No, now is the time ; it 's a mean thing, and here 
I am skulking away afraid of silence and myself. It 
is right, and that is enough. I will do it, cost what it 
will ; and I care not who knows it or hears it, or who 
hates me for it." 

This is prayer. This is what Christ went through 
alone in the mountains at night. And in the morning 
he came down to the lake shore, pale but decided 
and immovable, his mind settled, and not a thousand 
devils could shake it. After that fearful communion 
in the hills about Jerusalem, he goes bravely to death, 
calm with the conviction of right ; but feel his hands 
and forehead, they are icy after the mental strain, 
and he is almost faint, but never more collected, 
never so decided and courageous. 

This is real prayer, if indeed I have given any idea. 
It is hard to express my real meaning, yet it is as 
clear to me as day. There are things which we all 
experience, but which no one can describe to his satis- 
faction. Few will understand fully my meaning. I 
am conscious of the fact that I fail to express it 



CHRISTIANITY. 141 

clearly. It is not strange that such, ideas become lost, 
and that words convey no meaning. It is perfectly 
natural that people should fail to comprehend Christ's 
prayer, and yet probably every one of us has really 
gone through this same process, has really prayed 
like Christ alone in the hills, and come out of it weak 
and chill but determined. Eetire to your chamber 
alone, go back into the past ; you may not like to, but 
do so, and you will know what I mean by prayer. 

Ask anything you will, and you shall have it. I do 
not believe any one ever walked out of his chamber 
after this inner communion with refusal. Many have 
slunk away on tiptoe with negatives. The Christian 
prayer is a very different thing. Ko man ever prayed 
in a crowd ; no man ever prayed aloud, and conscious 
of the presence of others ; alone and in silence every 
one has prayed at least once in life. If there is 
anything men fear in the universe, it is themselves. 
Men cannot be alone. If they are forced to be alone, 
they become crazy. Alone, face to face with conscious 
truth, evil men are cowards, no matter what that truth 
is. Solitary confinement is the most dreaded punish- 
ment of criminals. Only now and then we learn of a 
man who can live alone. We call him crazy ; he is a 
hermit, a wizard, an atheist, a devil. Common men 
cannot conceive of the abstract. To such prayer is 
petition. They address a man like themselves, who 
will be moved by things which move them. The 
Christian god made man in his own image. The fact 
is, the Christian man made god in his own image. 
No gods make men. 

Christian prayer is a superstition, just as silly 
and senseless as any that ever existed. The Chinese 
merchant consults his Joss in the morning to learn 
whether he shall trade or not during the day. Upon 



142 CHKIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the fortuitous turning of a cup depends his action. 
Many a Christian does practically the same thing. 
The man who petitions God, or he who asks counsel 
of the Devil, or consults a Joss, or confides in Allah, 
is, after all, the same superstitious being. Each will 
say that he is answered; each will derive comfort; 
each will die for his idol. The more superstitious a 
man is, the more he will do for the object of his 
superstition, and the more he will claim for it. 

Christians frankly admit nowadays that the time of 
miracles has passed ; and yet, whenever one of them 
offers a prayer, he asks for a miracle. One would 
think from the prayers offered in the world daily, 
that civilization, after all, was a pitiable superstition. 
A closer investigation reveals the fact that the world 
is not so very superstitious, but very hypocritical. 
Men pray, or rather women pray, and that is the end 
of it. They do not expect an answer. It is a form, 
a fashion; it is respectable. The utter indifference 
of worshippers to their gods is one of the most hope- 
ful signs of the times, because hypocrisy is better than 
superstition. The next step is truth. ^' Lord, teach us 
to pray." 

Miracles and prophecies are important elements in 
Christian faith. Is a thing impossible ? Enough, — 
with a wave of the hand it is done in the twinkling of 
the eye. It requires little skill, intellect, or industry 
to concoct miracles, and still less intellect to believe 
them. Christian prophecies and signs are even more 
equivocal than the words of the oracles of the heathen. 
The greatest sign to be found in the whole Bible is 
that of the prophet Jonah, and the one to which refer- 
ence is most often made. It is referred to many times, 
and in the same way. What is it? Some sailors 
threw a prophet into the sea during a storm, believing 



CHRISTIANITY. 143 

him the cause of the hurricane ; and a whale oppor- 
tunely comes along, and obligingly swallows the poor 
fellow, who remained alive three days and three nights 
in the whale's belly. He proved too indigestible, and 
the whale goes inshore and casts him np. 

Now, this sign may mean a thousand things. Chris- 
tianity says it means that Christ shall be crucified, 
and pass one day and two nights, not alive but dead, 
not in a whale's belly in the sea, but in a stone 
sepnlchre on land. I do not think Christianity is 
right at all. The true sign, or moral, is as plain as 
the nose on one's face. What fools men are to believe 
in prophets, failing to detect a fraud so palpable as 
even to sicken a whale ! Men should spit out such 
silly stories and omens, even as Jonah was spewed 
up by the whale. 

But one more feature of Christianity shall be no- 
ticed here. It is curious how the teacher has become 
a teaching. This runs all through the system from 
highest to lowest. Christ goes about teaching a 
great and glorious morality, for his theological in- 
struction as such is very limited. This Christ, the 
teacher, becomes a teaching. He had pupils whom 
he sent about to preach after his own ideas ; these 
teachers too become teachings. These disciples found 
churches which are to disseminate their lessons ; and 
they in turn become teachings. The very words them- 
selves finally become sacred. Christianity declares 
not only that we must find Christ divine, but his in- 
struction the absolutely perfect command of God. 
The disciples, too, are inspired of God, and their 
lessons are infallible revelations. The Church also is 
infallible, the fount of virtue and honesty, — deny 
it at your peril. The word itself is from God, is 
with God, is God. Here is Christianity, and here 



144 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

is nonsense. These are things that ought to shame 
priests, and yet not priests, for it is we who believe 
them. People need never worry; priests in general 
will never preach what their hearers do not believe. 

From this latter characteristic we have peculiar 
developments. Among other creations, we have the 
great theory of the loffos, in which Saint John be- 
comes involved. The absolute divinity of the word 
is asserted. The Trinity is a Christian absurdity over 
which generation after generation of learned dunces 
have argued, and have damned and cursed one another. 
Christ taught that spirit is the guide of life. Of all 
the nonsense that has ever been written, there is little 
that will compare with the foolish, stupid theories 
that have been constructed about this word " spirit." 
The transformation is apparent in the very word 
itself, — indeed, the change appears in the very first 
letter, which theologically is a capital. The word is 
a part of the Trinity, the great three in one. Not 
content with this, we find a synonym, which, to give 
the theologians their due, conceals the original thought 
absolutely. Such absurdities deserve only a sarcasm 
or a sneer. 

It has been said that an absurd religion does not 
gain credence among a progressive, energetic people. 
The declaration that parts of Christianity are the 
height of absurdity seems contradictory, since all 
must admit that this faith is accepted by the most 
highly civilized and most progressive nations of the 
present era. But there is no contradiction, there is no 
discrepancy. In the first place Christianity is not a 
creation, it is an inheritance of our times. But be this 
as it may, the great fact remains that civilized nations 
do not believe what they accept. We have no faith in 
the god we worship. The laity do not care anything 



CHRISTIANITY. 145 

about the theories of Christianity, and only shrug their 
shoulders while the priesthood quarrel. The clergy 
themselves really have no faith, though they think 
they have, in a half-hearted way. Many find this an 
amusing spectacle ; others consider it disgraceful : all 
repudiate it inwardly. The great moral principles of 
this wonderful religion we do believe, thank God, and 
we are living up to them better and better as the years 
roll on. But I shall have more to say on this subject 
presently. Not less have Christians insulted Christ, 
thinking to glorify him, than the Pagans, intending 
dishonor. His simple teaching they confounded with 
the folly of superstition. 

A simple, primitive religion Christ taught, — one 
not hampered with ceremonies, nor taught- in temples, 
nor celebrated by priests. But in vain did he, and his 
early followers to a certain extent, teach this simple 
goodness. In vain was simple worship enjoined. Men 
craved for the marvellous, that which was more sound- 
ing and more striking. The age was not ready to 
comprehend such a belief as Christ taught ; nor indeed 
has any age since been able to comprehend, even in a 
limited measure, the real greatness and truth of the 
master's word. Individuals have lived in all times, 
to whose vision truth, or a good portion of it, was 
manifest; and the last decade shows great signs of 
a deeper appreciation of the truth of Christ. But 
humanity now as four thousand years ago loves the 
marvellous. 

Greatness is always largely ideal, and to the com- 
mon mind its life is rendered completely so. Imagi- 
nation creates from impressions. Invention slips in 
among the images which become fixed in our minds, 
and creates them anew. Men love to tell of the won- 
ders and the wonderful persons they have seen, and 

10 



146 CHKIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

you may be sure notTiing is lost in tlie telling. Love 
finds what it seeks. Affection, like all our passions, 
is blind. We love to find what we admire beautiful 
in all, just as we are apt to blacken in every par- 
ticular that which we hate. Furthermore, absolute 
sincerity, perfect honesty, and purest intent have not 
saved us from mistakes. 

For years and years a deep, sad reflection clouded 
the soul and overweighted the mind of men. This 
world is lost, and all we can do is to get out of it : this 
is the burden of Christianity. This evil world was 
what it sought to avoid. It invented a hundred theo- 
ries, evasions, redemptions, to gain salvation. ^' Shall I 
be damned ? " was the great question ; and people paid 
their money, sold their conscience, and traded their 
reason to escape the awful calamity. Moral fervor 
yields to religious practice, heartfelt earnestness gives 
place to outward form and show. Faith becomes 
changed, or rather a specific faith is fixed. 

The fundamental theory of Christianity is false, 
and it is surrounded with a mesh of creeds and doc- 
trines and theories varying from the monstrous to the 
ridiculous, and from the truthful to the unreasonable. 
Christianity as such never rose above persecution ; 
toleration is not a Christian virtue. It is a low and 
debasing falsehood that man was perfect once, but is 
now bad by nature and lost without Christian salva- 
tion, a falsehood altogether mean and contemptible. 
The morally good and the bad are not equally lost 
forever. When this standard prevails, moral death is 
certain, and history proves it to the letter. Theologi- 
cal sophistry cannot permanently prevail over truth. 
Eeal, true men always have loved and always will 
love goodness apart from theology, and in spite of 
theology. And Christianity, founded upon the moral 



CHEISTIANITY. 147 

teachings of Christ, has lived, not because of its many- 
theories and doctrines of salvation, but in spite of 
them. There is no more vital moral truth for man- 
kind than this ; not that we were once perfect, but 
that we are growing better. 

The teaching of Christ is overlaid with creeds. 
Theology, insisting upon its rule and catechism, places 
a yoke upon our necks which we cannot and will not 
bear. When we are told that we cannot reason on 
God's wisdom, and that we must accept what we find 
or be outcast, we are mocked, though with never so 
honest intent. Our reason is all we have to guide us, 
and he who rejects it deserves nothing : he has thrown 
away his only talent. 

Virtue is its own reward. This is the truth, and 
he who hopes for recompense is doomed to disap- 
pointment. A pure conscience is the highest glory. 
This is not Christianity, of course. The typical Chris- 
tian abstains from evil for fear of losing heaven. How 
many of our clergy might be mentioned who have 
said that were it not for their belief in the Bible 
they would at once give up trying to live virtuous 
lives, and spend their days in sensual pleasure and 
excess. I do not care to attempt to reckon up the 
number I have heard say this in form or substance. 
These men, typical Christians, do good like the disci- 
ples, because they expect rewards. The more diffi- 
cult and unpleasant it has been to be good, as they 
call it, the greater will be the prize, — perhaps a prin- 
cipality, or the rule of ten cities, or maybe only five. 
They tell their god they would not obey him if they 
did not fear him ; and this is the way they gain 
proselytes, whose only recommendation is that they 
are Christian. What if the proselyte is a sot or a 
gambler, this is no reason why he should be an infi- 



148 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

del. That old allegation contains a vast deal of truth. : 
" It is the pride of these not to be men, but to be Chris- 
tians.'^ They care nothing for the deeds of Christ, but 
only for his name. A Christian ! — ample apology for 
years of crime. A Believer ! — what an epitaph for a 
miserable, contemptible wretch ! 

Christianity was largely a protest against Pagan- 
ism. Its teachings are negative rather than positive, 
passive rather than active. We should abstain from 
evil and keep out of the world, rather than live for 
good in the world. Abhorring the sensuality of the 
Pagans, the Christians made an idol of asceticism. 
Christianity approaches with heaven in its right 
hand, and hell in its left. Thus we have a reward 
for right living. Paganism was above this. Chris- 
tian morality is utterly selfish. Salvation is but for 
the Jews anyway, and it was extended to the Gren- 
tiles as a punishment for the unbelief of the chosen 
race. Who wants such a second-hand gift ? 

But the system is by no means devoid of merits. 
I do not think there ever was a religion, a sect, or 
a party, no, nor an individual, that had not faults. 
It is time to reverse the medal and see what is 
on the other side. It is not necessary to mention 
specially the good traits of this great faith. We 
should look rather at its great distinctive results. 
Appreciating its meanness, we ought to understand 
its greatness. 

I suppose I have heard quite a number of educated 
men say, that, in their judgment, Christianity is one 
of the greatest calamities that have befallen the 
world. Some assert that religion of any kind is 
altogether a curse. Intellectually, I have heard it 
called an absurdity, ethically immoral, practically a 
stumbling-block. Such is the opinion of men who 



CHRISTIANITY. 149 

fail to understand their own condition. They fail to 
grasp the great fact that their own habits of life and 
thought depend, after all, upon the very thing in 
which they End not an atom of reason, virtue, or 
utility. Our present condition is the result of all 
that has happened in the past. 

Behind every tradition there is truth. At the foun- 
dation of every work of any kind there is purpose and 
idea. Whether the originators and builders know it 
or not, it is there ; they strive and toil but to exhibit 
it. Every line they trace, every blow they strike, re- 
veals in some degree this great truth which is the 
real source of their action. Only give men ideas, 
and you shall see them striving with might and 
main to express them ; the eye quickens, the fingers 
move, the heart leaps, all to one end. Let them be 
without ideas, and you shall see dull, filmy eyes, 
unmeaning faces, sluggish bodies, and silent lips. 

That great man who left the little hamlet on the 
shore of Galilee to walk up and down among his peo- 
ple preaching a truth that he could not contain, that 
he must preach or die, — yes, and die, — was no idle 
enthusiast, no impostor, no mere fool ; that web which 
his successors have wound about him so thoroughly 
and carefully as to render it well-nigh impossible to 
know anything accurately concerning him, — that, too, 
is not altogether nonsense, nor bigotry, though con- 
taining much of both. Without a Christianity the 
world had not known Christ ; without a Christ the 
world had known nothing. 

The world must have leaders, it must have parties 
and sects, it must have creeds. As long as human 
nature exists there will be bigots. Bigots, inquisi- 
tors, and tyrants are a part of the great scheme of 
civilization. Practice makes perfect. I have learned 



150 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY, 

more from mistakes in my life than from anything 
else. Christianity is not perfect, but he who finds 
nothing but evil in it is without reason. Ignorance 
and superstition of the past ! You of this enlight- 
ened nineteenth century who find this all, you who 
are clogging the wheels of progress more than those 
for whom you express such contempt, — what shall 
future generations say of you ? I tell you, in all 
that ignorance and superstition . was downright truth 
and right sought. In all this there was tremendous 
labor ; and we, forsooth, who have only contempt to 
offer, are reaping untold benefits. People for whose 
benefit others have spent their lives are often the 
most ungrateful of men. A patient who has been 
cured always grumbles at his doctor's bill. 

What appears so great and noble in the past, run- 
ning in unbroken line, though often faint, is this, 
nothing more, — only an earnest striving for truth. 
We see the stupid, patient, toiling, suffering masses 
of all ages, with bedaubed, dog-eared, tear-stained 
book, trying so hard to work out the problem of its 
poor existence. God be praised, those masses in 
America to-day reveal a noble progress. Work on, 
sturdy laborers ! you have many schools and books 
now, many willing, earnest teachers ; work on, never 
heeding the scoffs of fools. Salvation will surely 
come if only you keep an honest, brave heart. How 
proud you ought to feel of the great men of the 
world ! They are the sons of fathers like you. The 
only mean and low in this world are those that fail 
to live up to what they know, including those who 
neglect their opportunities. 

To be willing to do one's duty, this is morality ; to 
know how to do one's d-uty, this is wisdom. Having 
brought these two together, we have perfection. 



CHRISTIANITY. 151 

Thus far tlie world has been more moral than wise. 
The great masses are moral. In crime itself, and 
evil, is still morality. How great a man was that 
old heathen, how far in advance of his age, — he who 
said that crime was ignorance ! That ignorant, suf- 
fering, sinful, superstitious past, how moral and true 
it was, and how faithfully it lived up to what it 
knew ! 

Searching for truth, how eagerly they listened, and 
how earnestly they believed and cherished those old 
stories ! Their very hunger for truth itself created 
legends and fables. Wherever church was founded 
for the instruction of those who lived for truth ; 
wherever ground was consecrated to the repose of 
those who slept in the faith ; wherever the sweet ves- 
per chimes were heard in the twilight, charming the 
unquiet world to rest and remembrance of God, or 
the early matin bell, awakening to prayer and duty 
at morn, — there lived the memory of some priest who 
had performed holy deeds of charity ; there under 
that altar rested the sacred dust of some martyr who 
had suffered death, — sweet sacrifice to Christ, — some 
dreaming sister who in the silence and isolation of vol- 
untary expiation had woven a ladder there of prayer 
and penance, on which the angels of God ascended 
and descended to minister to the sainted recluse. 

There is much that is false here, but yet there is 
great honesty and singleness of purpose ; and this 
is what we admire in the superstitious past. It is 
what we admire in any and all times. We admire 
their principle, if we despise their judgment ; and 
thus will coming generations speak of us. Educa- 
tion has enabled us to understand these character- 
istics of the past. On the bleak western coast of 
Ireland a rude old bell may be seen, and a carved 



152 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

piece of oak, which, mark the devoted labors of Saint 
Patrick. A path worn smooth in the solid rock hy 
the bare feet and bleeding knees of pious pilgrims, 
who to this day, it is said, drag their weary bodies 
over the hard stoDe way, tells significantly the story 
there. A hundred such places may be found in 
Europe, silent monuments of heroic devotion. 

All these things have lost their old meaning. 
Those who practised the old ceremonies and mortifi- 
cations would not do so if they were living to-day. 
We cannot rightly appreciate the spirit of those 
times. We are apt to attribute base motives to 
ancient practices, while many of the sentiments of 
antiquity fall flat upon the ear. In the tower of an 
ancient building in an old town where I spent many 
months of my childhood, hangs a bell which was 
placed there when the building was erected. It has 
a peculiar tone, quite common to very old bells, 1 
find. People say it is cracked, though it i^ as sound 
a bell as ever tolled the hour. 

There is a good deal of difference between politic 
reason and earnest faith. Eeason says right is better 
than wrong, because it makes us happy and prosper- 
ous, and should prevail because it is right. But it 
goes no further. Men do not die for policy's sake. 
Faith says right and wrong are forever contradicto- 
ries. One is of God ; the other is of the Devil. One 
shall have an immortality of glory ; the other an 
eternity of damnation. The Christian had faith, and 
who can wonder at any measures he took to win 
heaven ? Are any inventions he devises to avoid 
hell surprising ? Astounding would it be in very 
truth if Christianity offered no hope, invented no 
theories of salvation, created no heaven of repose 
from this bitter, interminable strife and error. 



CHRISTIANITY. 153 

There is a grand trutli here. What if it is at times 
totally buried in the labyrinth of theological isms ? 
There have been ages when this great truth seemed 
hopelessly lost, and yet it has returned when least 
expected, to comfort and strengthen. After all, the 
great sustaining, upbuilding force of Christianity lies 
in its morality. There is a religion of morality itself, 
a worship deeper and truer than metaphysics knows. 
We all admire and love goodness. Christianity has 
lived, not because of, but in spite of, its faulty doc- 
trines. The source of its unparalleled strength lies in 
its moral grandeur, at times at fault indeed, but on 
the whole much truer, purer, and nobler than that of 
any other religion the world has yet accepted. 

Let us consider just a moment that superb morality 
at its best. Is happiness the great end of human ex- 
istence, after all ? Is human greatness and excellence 
to be measured by any such rule of content ? If so, 
then we shall have to pull down our monuments, tear 
the eulogies from our histories, and obliterate the 
memories in our minds. Few of our great and noble 
ever gained happiness. We shall, then, praise little- 
ness. Inferiority shall be our god. This is not it at 
all. Not in the possession of enjoyment, not in the 
charm of happiness, nor in the wealth of content, but 
in the consciousness of right, lies real greatness. 
True, we may be happy and right, perhaps we ought 
oftener to be both ; but happiness is not the certificate 
by which we enter into the kingdom of God, much 
less the object of such entrance. Prosperity, com- 
fort, and luxury tend to selfishness. To wear them, 
like the fair waving tresses of maidenhood, as the 
ornaments of virtue, is triumph. To serve the right 
and to love it, to worship, if you please, this great 
spirit, is higher and nobler than enjoyment. Be 



154 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

right, though with never so wounded feet and bruised 
hands and bleeding heart. This is the glory of glo- 
ries, really to live in the world, to hold integrity 
unsullied, not to know the guilt of self-reproach, in 
kindness to others, — what a triumph ! 

The reward is not a state of happiness and bliss. 
There need be no reward, there is no reward. Thou- 
sands of good men have died in sorrow. They are 
dying all about us now in lamentable grief, and will 
so die to-morrow. Sorrow lingers and loiters on the 
parched lips of the righteous, — or if moistened, only 
by tears, — willing to depart indeed, but not suffered 
to go. Grief falls alike upon the good and the bad ; 
sometimes it seems rather to choose the good. There 
is no reward, nor is any wished for. The virtuous 
care only to continue so. Be right, unmindful of hap- 
piness and reward. If you do right, life will yet be 
sweet, though sorrowful. The great spirit of right 
somehow makes the afflicted heart to sing for joy. 
Pleasure may depart, fortune may flit away, friends 
may fail; but to worship in spirit and in truth is, 
was, and shall be. 

I suppose it is given to all of us, at one time or an- 
other in our lives, to know a pure affection, a love 
that thought not of self. In childhood it may have 
been ; some of us have loved as lovers ; many have 
loved as wives and mothers, and a few as husbands 
and fathers. Such a love there may be of right, pure 
and hallowed, like that of Christ. 

This brings us back to Christ, whose teaching 
forms the strength and truth of Christianity. Christ 
preached no moral or political economy, no enlight- 
ened prudence, but purity of heart. He held out no 
promise but the certainty of the final triumph of his 
word, and the contempt of the world. How soon his 



CHRISTIANITY. 155 

word was twisted all out of shape by theological 
dogmatism, and how quickly that contempt became 
subjective ! Dogma became an infallible rule of sal- 
vation ; contempt for the world, a Christian essential. 

Tlie ark of God was never taken, in very truth, till 
it was surrounded by the arms of earthly defenders. 
The security of Christianity rests alone in its benefi- 
cent morality, its exquisite adaptability to the human 
heart, the vast amount of truth it offers to the reason, 
and its remarkable adaptation to all conditions of life. 
The consolation which it offers in sorrow, and the 
light which it throws across the grave, are no better 
and no more cheerful than the comfort and hope of 
many other systems of religion. There is not much 
comfort in the belief that the vast majority of all men 
shall be eternally damned. As a matter of fact we 
do not believe it true. It is in our accepted creed, to 
be sure ; but people do not have faith in half the 
things they accept. There are at the present day 
very few believers in the Christian religion, though 
thousands upon thousands of subscribers to its creeds. 
This is a most hopeful sign of progress, and a most 
trustworthy indication of enlightenment. 

It seems as if there is no theory so moral and no 
goodness so pure as not to become at times, at least, 
disarmed and distorted by the weaknesses, or meanness, 
if you please, of human nature. The real conduct be- 
comes but a rule of conduct ; the live spirit dies, and 
becomes a dead formula. Finally we have a moral 
revolt, and then we begin anew. 

In the Christian system the great prevailing fea- 
ture is human worthlessness. The overpowering fact 
abides, and will abide as long as the Bible continues 
to be the infallible exponent of Christianity, that the 
great mass of humanity is the devil's own, and shall 



156 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

be his eternally. When men really conclude that hu- 
man effort cannot win perfection or merit salvation, 
and that Christ by his death has taken away the stain 
of crime for such as believe the word, moral progress 
will cease and mankind deteriorate. The Middle Ages 
afford a striking example of this fact. Then was our 
system of religion really believed. We know the char- 
acteristics of those times, and their lesson is plain. 

The fact that Christianity contains much truth, and 
was in the past an earnest effort and valiant aid to 
right living, is no reason for its continued prevalence. 
Christianity was a moral revolution, and undoubtedly 
the best and highest possible to the times was gained. 
Fixing religion irrevocably by the infallibility of the 
Bible, we fall into error. The child's letter-box aids 
him to read ; but he must abandon it soon, or remain 
always a child. We must not put general faith in a 
special theory. He is foolish in the extreme who em- 
barks on a rotten hull because it has carried him on 
many a long and perilous voyage. The system is out 
of harmony with our times. It is practically an ab- 
surdity. As a theory, though once moral, it is no 
longer so in the enlightened understanding of the 
times. 

Christianity offers a wholesale opportunity of salva- 
tion. Whosoever will may come, though curiously 
enough in the same breath we are solemnly assured 
that most of us will come only to be rejected. This 
opportunity, moreover, is given not because we de- 
serve it, but out of a kindly condescension to our spir- 
itual worthlessness. Had we meted out to us severe 
justice, none would be saved, because none Avere wor- 
thy. If we have faith, we may become numbered 
among the select heavenly pauperism. The Cliristian 
heaven is an eleemosynary institution, very select, for 



CHRISTIANITY. 157 

we are assured that though many come, few will be 
chosen. I scorn such favor. Could I not feel sure 
of the ability to do right if I chose, had I not the 
conviction of the possibility to myself of a true and 
noble life, did I not know that I can live for truth 
and God, I would live for the devil. 

It may be that hell awaits the vast majority of 
men because of Eve's sin ; but I for one declare there 
is no justice in it. I assert that it is false, immoral, 
and utterly contemptible, in the face of God himself. 
If this theory be true, rather than receive such mercy 
as is offered, I will cheerfully go to hell and receive 
this pitiable punishment for my sin. In my dying 
breath I will cry to such a judge : " I forgive you, for 
3^ou know not what you do." 

" What ! from his helpless Creature be repaid 
Pure Gold for what he lent him dross- allay 'd, — 

Sue for a Debt he never did contract, 
And cannot answer, — oh, the sorry trade ! 

" Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make, 
And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake ! 

For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man 
Is blacken'd — Man's f orsriveness give — and take ! " 



158 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 



lY. 
THE CHURCH. 

" Which of the twain will ye that I release unto you? And they 

said, Barabbas." 

THE Church is the practical exponent of Chris- 
tianity ; the Church of to-day is its modern 
expression. It is the school in which Christian doc- 
trine is taught ; and, as has been said before, it has 
become itself a part of that doctrine. Christ never 
established it any more than he did Christianity. It 
was founded, like Christianity, by his successors, upon 
what they supposed or asserted to be his command- 
ment He probably never dreamed such would be 
the outcome of his teaching. Greatly surprised, un- 
less I am much mistaken, would he be could he come 
on earth to-day and see the structures built in his 
honor, the sects established in his name, and the 
ceremonies performed in his worship ; and not alto- 
gether pleased, I venture. 

The Church began, doubtless, as a simple gathering 
of believers, as one of the Scriptural writers puts it, 
" in an upper room," just as the Salvationists to-day 
gather in some poor cheap hall or other, there to 
preach their doctrine and win souls for heaven. As 
the faithful increased in number, many of these ser- 
vices were persistently conducted in various places. 
A regular organization was instituted, and a com- 
plete though necessarily limited system established. 



THE CHURCH. 159 

During several centuries this system was gradually 
expanding from without and from within, and gain- 
ing power and wealth. The early Christian rightly 
thought his money nowhere better spent than for his 
god, and he gave with astonishing liberality. He 
was taught that it was more blessed to give than to 
receive ; and such was his integrity that he lived 
firmly up to his creed. As soon as the new sect had 
a sufficiency of money, churches, or houses of meet- 
ing, were built and maintained for religious purposes. 
The catacombs were abandoned for more comfortable 
and elegant structures. With this prosperity quite 
naturally corruption crept in. When a sect is weak, 
it manifests little vice. 

By and by it came to be no disgrace to be a Chris- 
tian ; and thousands who were already in sympathy 
with the movement, but who feared the scorn and 
ridicule of Pagan society, and consequently had hith- 
erto kept aloof, now openly embraced the new faith. 
Later it became a mark of honor to be a Christian, 
and now thousands more embraced the faith, proud 
to be the parasites of a noble and wealthy Church. 
Yet a little later it came to be a reproach not to be a 
Christian ; it became heresy, it became infidelity, it 
became anathema, maranatha, not to acknowledge 
allegiance to the Church only ; and many more thou- 
sands swelled the mighty band, glad to gain peace and 
protection at the price of a little hypocrisy, a little 
money, and a little sacrifice of conscience. Finally, 
the mighty Church firmly established, opulent, pow- 
erful, and magnificent, the ancient of days, all people 
swelled its membership as a matter of course, as of 
custom or fashion or respectability, with scarcely a 
thought of the meaning of the step, or an idea of the 
significance of enrolment. And here is where we 



160 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

rest at present ; though, another step seems a.bont to 
be taken, and people are beginning to examine this 
costly, magnificent inheritance, to question its useful- 
ness in its present form, while some are moved to 
scorn and ridicule it as a stupendous imposition. 

In order to understand the Church of the present, 
it is essential to know something of its past. "Not 
to know what has happened before us is always to be 
a child," says Cicero ; and it is undoubtedly true that 
it is impossible to gain a broad and comprehensive 
understanding of any institution — educational, polit- 
ical, or religious — from its mere present activity or 
decay. We find ourselves in the possession of a stu- 
pendous system, the correct enjoyment and use of 
which it is the suspicion of many we do not compre- 
hend or exercise. We are in the position of the irre- 
sponsible and pampered heir to the vast millions of 
ancestors, without an appreciation of the meaning of 
wealth, or a knowledge of its proper use, to say noth- 
ing of an understanding of the vast amount of calcu- 
lation and downright hard work it required to amass 
and preserve such a fortune. A brief examination 
into the past of the Church, if it does not teach us a 
righteous use, will yet at least instil a proper appre- 
ciation of the conditions and circumstances that have 
made it what it is. 

The early Christian efforts scarcely merit the name 
of Church. They were rather missions, in the term 
of present use. Such was the labor of the apostles. 
Such was the toiling in the catacombs ; and probably 
for some time after the catacombs had been aban- 
doned. Christian work, broadly speaking, was rather 
of the nature of missions than that of an organized 
church. But the Church in all its pomp came 
quickly, and that, too, long before the Middle Ages. 



THE CHURCH. 161 

In fact, during the Middle Ages it reached its cul- 
mination, and from this great period of history dates 
its decline. To be sure, one wing of this great re- 
ligious organization, the Protestant Church, dates 
its beginning from the Middle Ages ; but after all, 
this offshoot, now grown to the size, if not the power, 
of its parent, is really comprehended in the holy 
Catholic Church, as indeed many of its leaders 
insist. 

We find before the sixteenth century a Church all 
but omnipotent wherever it was established. Priest- 
craft was a profession of infinite importance. It had 
become a consummate art. Nowhere else but in re- 
ligion is such enormous privilege and power gained ; 
and it is gained by every religion the world has ever 
seen. Explain the fact in whatever way we please, 
its reality we must admit. A large, well-organized 
body of men, dealing specially with an omnipotent, 
infinite power above the earth and outside the uni- 
verse, ruling and directing it, and teaching a future 
beyond the grave, concerning whose absolute reality 
no living human being knows, has, in one form or 
another, for one reason or another, always exerted 
extraordinary power over men. This is the fact, and 
the fact is all that concerns us at present. 

The ancient priest, from Moses down to within a 
century, had always been regarded a divine man, a 
prophet sent by God and under God's especial care. 
Omitting the time element, this is true of all reli- 
gions. Here is really the source of church power. 
Tlie priest, for thousands of years probably, was one 
from whose lips fell inspired words, thoughts divine, 
truth absolute from God himself ; and such words, 
such thought, such truth, it is not for man to deny. 
The priest was the great inspired teacher of men, and 

11 



162 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the infallible guide through this life and beyond to 
the eternal. 

In the Middle Ages, when some priests denied the 
infallibility of the Pope, they set up either their own 
infallibility, or at least the injunction laid upon them 
by God to teach the infallibility of the greatest priest 
and prophet of all, the Bible. The resemblance, if 
not identity actual and real, of Protestantism to Ca- 
tholicism hence is apparent. The only difference at 
basis lies simply in a change of method, — withal a 
change which renders possible, and probable in natu- 
ral sequence, a rejection of the whole theory. And 
this final result is what we have actually come to in 
this centurj^- in the establishment within the pale of 
the Christian Church itself, ostensibly at least, of a 
new sect which takes the name Unitarian, and makes 
a spiritual morality its teaching. 

Subjected to the influence of the line of thought 
just indicated, theology and metaphysics naturally 
flourish. The cumbrous, worthless learning of scho- 
lasticism is the proper commentary and the living 
moral lesson of this great system of an infallible, 
divinely inspired, and spiritually guided priesthood, — 
the semblance and, to a great extent, the reality of 
which we find in our possession to-day. 

Before passing to particular consideration of this 
present possession, it will be well to observe care- 
fully, if briefly, some of its ancient characteristics. 
The priest was the temporal as well as the spiritual 
ruler of the people. He was present, if not actually, 
yet in form, at the birth of every child ; he attended 
him through youth and manhood and old age, com- 
forted him in the hour of death, muttered a prayer 
over his grave, and sung masses for the repose of his 
soul. His vow of poverty brought him wealth ; and 



THE CHURCH. 163 

the priesthood, as a body, voraciously grasj^ed at all 
they could or dared get. Nothing was too sacred for 
them to touch. Devoid of shame, they mercilessly 
extorted pitiful fees from the poor and the helpless ; 
the widow's mite and the orphan's living they de- 
voured and gloated over; they danced with glee at 
the welcome receipt of magnificent gifts of wealthy 
believers whose poor wits they had scared into this 
pious prodigality; at all stages of the road of life 
they extorted such fees as render the old English 
tax-gatherer kind and merciful indeed in compari- 
son. If the poor victim refused to pay, or spoke a 
disrespectful word of the priesthood, he was fined 
for this neglect or disrespect itself; and if he dared to 
persist in his refusal, he was excommunicated. And 
this was woful punishment. IS^one might sell him 
food or clothing, no friend might give him nourish- 
ment or shelter, none might offer the kind acts of 
charity, no, nor even utter words of compassion 
or sympathy, under threat of the same punishment ; 
and he was cursed in heaven, on earth, and in hell 
with the most horrible and bitter anathemas human 
invention could frame into intelligible language. If 
you want priests to be reasonable in argument and 
logic, and moderate in their demands, you must take 
away their infallibility. 

The American people never began to worship money 
half so assiduously as the ancient clergy of the great 
Christian Church. Nothing but money could wipe 
out sin. Charity and mercy had no place in this 
stupendous system. If a layman erred, it was a 
simple matter so long as he paid for it ; but woe to 
him if he refused. Keligion was thus a very simple 
thing ; its meaning could be understood by the merest 
child, and it was just this : The Church held the kevs 



164 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

of heaven and hell. If a person committed crimes 
worthy of hell, a suitable ]Dresent to the priest would 
nevertheless open to him the gate of heaven. If an- 
other were ill, a pilgrimage to some sacred place, a 
shrine, a holy sepulchre, or a wooden Jesus, with the 
enforced privilege of paying numerous fees at every 
hand and at all times, was recommended ; and never 
was recommendation more a command. It was of no 
use to go to church or to confession, or to a saint, 
shrine, or crucifix without money. This is the 
Christian Church, the very ark of God, which es- 
tablished the Bible as the infallible constitution of 
Christianity. 

To say a pater noster forward was a powerful charm, 
a talisman with which to win heaven ; repeat it back- 
wards, and the blackest devil in hell is powerless 
against you. And this, I believe, has come down to 
modern times in one form of the Church, together 
with the confessional, which if not abused is really 
a good institution. Rich and poor alike submitted to 
this galling yoke of priestcraft. The Emperor of 
Germany held the stirrup for Gregory the Seventh 
to mount his ass. Henry Plantagenet walked bare- 
foot through the streets of Canterbury, and crawled 
on his knees like a whining puppy while the monks 
flogged him. Alas for a people ruled by a child, 
doubly alas for a people ruled by a priesthood ! We 
are disgusted at finding so much superstition and 
chicanery, such low, contemptible arts, and such arro- 
gant and unbridled insolence as the clergy manifested 
at this time. They had wealth, they had sounding 
titles, they had all the pomp and magnificence of roy- 
alty, — these wretched subscribers to poverty ; and 
for such a palpable fraud and delusion people bar- 
tered their independence and stultified their reason. 



THE CHURCH. 165 

But there is another characteristic of this ancient 
Church more agreeable and wonderful, and more fruit- 
ful to reflection than that which has been mentioned. 
The purse of mankind lies next to its heart. Men 
may sometimes pay their money hypocritically or 
disingenuously, but on the whole such expenditure 
is alto ijectore. And when the nature of the expendi- 
ture is manifest, the real heart of man is laid open, 
as it were. I refer to the architecture and art em- 
bodied in the ancient Church. 

The priests and leaders of every religion have 
sought to raise man to the comprehension of his 
divine origin^ and celestial destiny by the outward 
symbols of art and architecture. Before men could 
read they scrawled a god on the smooth sand of 
the shore ; before they could talk they hammered a 
god from the chipping stone. These likenesses and 
images vary all the way from the hideous and mon- 
strous to the sublime, from the terrible grinning faces 
of the heathen to the lovely forms of the old masters, 
from the weak vacillation apparent in the eastern 
pagoda to the grand substantial sublimity of the 
European cathedral. It is upon the more favorable 
of these forms that we may linger a moment. While 
this great church exhibited all this petty meanness 
and contemptible insolence, it was still straining its 
energies and lavishing its wealth in the attempt to 
create fitting symbols of the religion of which itself 
was the manifestation. 

The mediaeval cathedral is one vast symbol, speak- 
ing from every turret, arch, and gable, breathing 
from every pore the great story of its underlying 
faith. Men have always been good at heart if dog- 
matic in theology. Some of these massive piles unite 
in a grand anthem, a swelling gloria to the mighty 



166 CHKIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Creator, the God of heaven and earth. Others chant 
mournfully of a dies irae to come, yet so touchingly 
as almost to bring tears to the eyes. All these struc- 
tures tell their story. The colonnades, the walls, the 
windows, the very tiles, are eloquent on some Chris- 
tian theme. The bells are known to the people by 
name. Inscribed as they are to countless saints, 
they speak from their great black throats with aston- 
ishing effect. The cold symbols within are taken for 
reality, and are worshipped. Here is a Christ or a 
Virgin in a conspicuous place : thousands daily pause 
and kneel, muttering a prayer at its foot. Gold and 
silver and precious stones are lavished upon these 
Jesuses and Virgins. The more massive and costly 
an image is, the greater its potency. But, on the 
whole, meaning is not as yet utterly lost in mere 
form. There is great truth as yet here, despite all 
the sham and show. Were this not so, we should 
not have these magnificent structures, those charm- 
ing madonnas, those lovely cherubs, little in dogmatic 
orthodoxy, but great in true religion. The artist of 
this period is no snivelling pedant ; the architect's 
mind is not clouded with the gloomy nonsense of 
scholasticism. These two, artist and architect, are 
truly religious in this great sea of unreligion, of 
orthodoxy, of imposture. And yet the Church must 
have had some religion, or it would never have ap- 
preciated these glorious works of art. 

The ancient Church, thus briefly characterized, 
divided, to be sure, but after all originally and at 
basis one mere form, passes down through the ages 
to our own times, without change of government or 
form or name to speak of, existing under the same 
constitution which it adopted before the Middle Ages. 
Meanwhile, during the idleness, and blind, fancied 



THE CHURCH. 167 

security of tlie priesthoodj the people have been 
learning carnal knowledge. Now and then there has 
been a revolt. Knowledge fermented in men's minds, 
and caused them to act as if actually possessed of 
devils. Kevolutions occur. Images are broken, costly 
vestures burned, and painted glass shattered. Ele- 
gant organs, " kists of whistles made for the devil," 
are split into kindlings. And yet after a time the 
old Church is seen to be sailing on in full glory, but 
by her side is the ever-present schoolhouse, poor, 
homely, almost ridiculous at first, but soon to be 
grand with that grandeur which only truth can give. 
The conclusion of all this is unmistakable. Men of 
the present find themselves far in advance of the 
Church and the priesthood. When mention is made 
of either, it is noticed that a significant smile is 
raised. People awake to find that they have no faith 
in the Church to which they are united. They admit 
they subscribe to a lie. Let us look into the modern 
church. As before, the priest shall be considered 
first. 

A striking change that, from the ancient priest to 
the modern priest ; and it is not that the clergy them- 
selves are so different from their predecessors, but 
that the common people have grown wonderfully in 
knowledge. In the old days the priest alone was edu- 
cated, if the theological knowledge he possessed can be 
called education ; now the clergy as a body are no bet- 
ter educated than other professional men. In other 
words, our idea of education has changed. Except 
among few besides the clergy themselves, theology 
and metaphysics are not considered knowledge. All 
practical men, without exception, have for such learn- 
ing only that feeling of contempt which it richly de- 
serves. In the old days all the knowledge there was 



168 CHRIST vs. CHEISTIANITY. 

consisted of theology and metapliysicSj and none but 
the clergy had that ; at present these branches form 
but an insignificant part of knowledge, and, as for- 
merly, the clergy alone possess it. 

The clergy are no longer infallible, but must render 
an account to men as well as to God. Consequently 
the great cause of their superiority has disappeared. 
The priesthood holds no such position to-day as it did 
a few years, not to say generations, ago. The preacher 
is no longer the spiritual ruler, or even guide ; and 
temporal power he would not think of claiming. The 
old idea, as has been said, was that the priest was the 
divinely inspired ruler and guide of man, and that 
man should follow him and submit to his direction, 
just as the sheep follow their shepherd. A curious 
transformation has crept in, — a change really comi- 
cal : the sheep assume the leadership, and go scram- 
bling and tearing whithersoever they will ; while the 
shepherd, poor bell-wether, follows along in their 
scattering tracks as best he can ! The change is 
fairly ludicrous. 

At present the modern system, in the Protestant 
Church at least, does not conform to that of the 
ancient Church, nor yet to the more primitive and 
simple idea of Christ. The primitive idea was that a 
really godly man, divinely inspired, and bearing God's 
own message, should go about and teach people to be 
pure and godly above all. It was not his duty to com- 
promise with the devil, or to consult with his hearers 
as to how or what he should teach ; for his method 
and doctrine he had from God. His living was the 
voluntary offerings of his hearers, and luxury and 
worldly goods were not sought. But soon tithes 
crept in, and were demanded as by right ; for was not 
the laborer worthy of his hire? Later the vow of 



THE CHURCH. 169 

poverty meant the certainty of untold riches. At 
present both characteristics of the early priest have 
disappeared, — except, as before suggested, in the 
Roman Church, which will be considered later, the 
remarks in this connection being directed solely to 
the Protestant wing of the great Catholic Church. 

At present, then, the people have full sway. The 
Church, considered as a body of subscribers to Chris- 
tian creeds, has taken its destiny into its own hands ; 
it is they who decide what shall be preached and who 
shall preach it. They hold out promise of large sal- 
aries and social inducements to a popular preacher. 
They invite a man to preach in their church, and if 
he suits their taste, is " broad " or " narrow," orthodox 
or heterodox, according to their particular line of 
thought, they give him a "call," and make him an 
offer. Once installed in a church, he must use the 
greatest caution in his sermons, lest he offend. His 
theology must suit his people ; above all, he must 
please the women. If only a parson shall find favor 
with the women, his success is assured. The men care 
little about him anyway so their wives are pleased ; 
and he handles his moral scourge shrewdly, so as not 
to touch some personal sores too harshly. 

Heaven, hell, the world, the flesh, and the devil 
must be mentioned only with infinite caution to suit 
his people. He must, in short, to a great extent, how- 
ever learned, wise, and popular he may be, maintain 
the position of an echo to the ideas of his congrega- 
tion. Some few great preachers seem to be exceptions 
to this rule, and to retain positions with unlimited 
freedom of comment ; but when this occurs, the real 
reason of their tolerance as pastors too often lies in a 
lamentable pride of having the best or the most popu- 
lar or the greatest orator, — motives even worse than 



170 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the other. One or two real exceptions there may be 
out in the country ; scarcely one in the city. This is 
not dogmatism, nor am I a radical. I do not say this 
is not right ; but it is not Christ, or Christian either. 
We shall deal with morality later. 

The prevalent method of selecting pastors and the 
manner of treating them, on the whole, set a premium 
on mere outward show. Graces of oratory, winning 
manners, and agreeable personality are chiefly sought. 
The women are the ones to please, not the men. It is 
the women who go to church ; when men go, they go 
with the women. The clergy, as a body, it must be con- 
fessed, are not intellectually a superior body of men. 
This is a serious charge to make, but I think it can be 
proved beyond a doubt. Hundreds of warm friends 
of the Church will, with some regret, tacitly admit its 
truth. So true is it, in fact, that the large number of 
utterly incompetent, inferior, and even stupid men — 
men who ought to be at work on the farm, where they 
would do some good — that is counted in the lengthy 
roll of the clergy has hurt the real cause of Christ 
more than infidelity itself. Infidelity has, indeed, 
done as much for the great cause perhaps as the 
Church, despite the great advantage the latter has 
enjoyed in organization. 

The Cliurch is responsible for the incompetency and 
Unfitness of its servants. Pecuniary inducements 
without limit are offered at wholesale to all young 
men who will study for the ministry. Different soci- 
eties, having established various colleges, offer educa- 
tion therein free of cost to all who signify their 
intention of studying for the ministry of their partic- 
ular sect. In this and in other ways the student's 
complete living is given him without exertion on his 
part, and without other condition than that already 



THE CHUKCH. 171 

mentioned. This is nothing more nor less than a delib- 
erate premium set upon inferiority. As a result this 
inferiority has become a matter of public comment. 
All are familiar with the old rhyme wliich makes the 
fool of the family study for the ministry. Even the 
newspapers sneer at the clergy. One of our popular 
periodicals recently summed up the whole feeling in 
this sentence : " It always seems to create more or less 
surprise when a man who has actually demonstrated 
his ability to do anything else, determines to study 
for the ministry." 

" Wherever you see a cassock and gown, 
A hundred to one but it covers a clown," 

was written years ago. In a book formerly belonging 
to Theodore Parker, I find this side note written with 
reference to the inferiority of the clergy : " The only 
calling almost in which a man can rise without merit." 
This is an epitome of the whole subject. 

It is no wonder that the clergy numbers such incom- 
petents as are to be found on every hand within its 
ranks. In my own personal experience I have known 
men who knew they were incompetent for the position, 
to shift along through a theological course simply be- 
cause they did not know what else to do, and this 
offered the most temporarily for the least exertion. 
The ministry is simply crowded with just such men. 
It is the greatest reproach that can be brought against 
the profession. Young men of ability and pluck scorn 
such aid. The very fact that it is offered turns them 
away from the ministry. Men of ability and courage 
disdain to be paupers. 

The mediocrity of the clergy appears in the sermons 
delivered. It appears in the limited attendance at the 
churches, and in the inattention so clearly perceptible 



172 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

of those who do manage to sit through the tedious 
sermons. Churches are obliged to originate special 
attractions in order to fill their seats. Wherever you 
find a crowded church it is quite generally owing to 
these special features, often maintained at great cost. 
People sit through the sermons because they must, if 
they will enjoy the entertainment. The sermon is 
the grain of salt generally incident to pleasure. 

I wish it were possible to get a composite sermon, 
just as the photographers take composite pictures. 
It would be an interesting paper, I am sure. A trite, 
meaningless text, drawn from the only source permis- 
sible ; introduction explaining the allusion and a 
portrayal of the sensations the writer must have 
experienced ; repetition of the text ; the instruction 
intended considered in three lights from as many 
standpoints ; examples from the stock characters, — 
David the singer, Jonah the only true sign, the devil 
the root of all evil ; final application to the effect that 
life is worthless without Christianity, and the world 
a moral Sahara without a belief in the divinity of 
Christ, the future a hell unless we speedily clutch 
doctrinal salvation. The people pass out talking 
about the singing, the next ball, the last party, or 
fashions. This may not be fair, but it is true. I wish 
I could add in an appendix a sermon I heard not long 
ago at Trinity Church, Boston, and the small talk I 
overheard after the services. 

The custom of choosing texts is peculiar. Some- 
times the text is so far-fetched that the preacher 
seems to have set himself a puzzle or task ; namely, 
that of twisting a modern moral application out of an 
almost meaningless sentence written hundreds of 
years ago. There is a tempting suggestion always 
present that the minister, if he be really an able man. 



THE CHUECH. 173 

is laughing in his sleeve as he preaches, thinking of 
the open-mouthed credulity of his audience at his 
curiously woven argument and far-fetched allusions 
and analogies. Think of the tracts church societies 
are forever publishing and sending out broadcast. 
Their very titles are in many instances grotesque and 
ridiculous, and their contents lamentably absurd. It 
is amusing to pry into Sunday-school libraries, and 
astonishingly enlightening. What heaps of nonsense, 
senseless trash, are put into the hands of children by 
pious but stupid parents and societies ! No wonder 
children of pious families as a rule hate Sundays. 

It is a curious study to observe what people will 
endure in this world of ours. What a patient, long- 
suffering species of animal we are ! How strangely 
we follow a leader to the most whimsical extremes ! 
Some fashionable lady appears in public with a nasty 
pup ; instantly hundreds of ladies purchase these 
dirty little whelps, and race fluttering through the 
streets, leading these pitiable objects of their deepest 
affection. It is fashionable or respectable to go to 
church ; and so we dress ourselves in all our finery, 
and submit to the operation once a week. We step 
from the pulpit to the auditorium. 

How many people among all the thousands of 
church-members and church-goers seek in very truth 
a holy place, where they may lay aside the world and 
its cares and gain a sacred moment of earnest commu- 
nion with God ? The question is too sad to insist 
upon. We are unwilling to admit our pitiable mean- 
ness and lamentable hjrpocrisy even to ourselves. We 
boast of the societies to which we belong, and in a 
measure take our social standing accordingly. Think 
of it. Christ said we ought to worship in secret, and 
we take our social position from the church we attend ! 



174 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

We deck ourselves out in stiffly starched petticoats 
and nicely creased trowsers, and march slowly down 
to church just a little late. We nod and smirk at one 
another over the singing. We hastily mumble over the 
service or the responses, and are glad when they are 
done. We kneel and pray, gazing all over the church, 
or peeping through our lingers at our neighbors ; 
rising, we whine and drawl out a woful hymn. The 
choir again amuse us with an anthem, and then the 
organ plays while collection is taken, — a ceremony 
which gives us a chance to change our cramped posi- 
tion, and yawn, make comments, and display our 
piety by substantial offerings. Then the minister 
rises and begins his sermon, and for a moment' pretty 
good attention is given, — a few strangers only ex- 
changing remarks about the parson and his appear- 
ance and manners. Pretty soon we are all bored, and 
begin to wish he would stop. Now and then, it is 
true, something comes out that pleases us, and gains 
our approval, or raises a smile. And so with much 
looking about and yawning and general impatience, 
we manage to worry through the sermon. How 
things brighten up when the parson closes the book 
just before the conclusion ! It is a relief to rise and 
whine through another hymn ; and with light hearts 
we receive the benediction, and trip gayly out and 
home like school-children. It is a noticeable thing, 
this school-boy exhilaration after church ; and no won- 
der we feel glad. Just think, no more sermons for 
most of us for a week ; and in the afternoon we will 
go down the harbor, or take a drive, or a turn through 
the park ! Well, it is a matter of .congratulation. 

Out of the whole congregation, how many know 
anything about the sermon ? Sharp, the trader, has 
been reckoning over his accounts j while Blabson, the 



THE CHURCH. 175 



o 



lawyer, has settled the form of his brief ; youn 
Dandy has been gazing all the morning at the pretty 
girls, whose mothers have noted styles and exchanged 
glances of hatred at that upstart, Mrs. Push. Dives 
mentally clinks his dollars, while Lazarus has done 
his best to keep the tempter, atra cura, behind him. 
The boys have dangled their little fat legs till they 
prickle and tingle, improving now and again the 
chance to play while the head of the family nods 
stupidly from weariness, but ever ready to assume 
exemplary decorum when the momentary awakening 
occurs, always preceded, fortunately, by the short, 
warning snort. All these people are not in the least 
sanctified. They are of earth earthy, and not so bad 
after all. True, most have repeated again and again, 
" Have mercy upon us, miserable sinnet's ; " but they 
don't mean it, not one of them, unless it be Lazarus 
with the sores. " Little children, keep yourselves 
from idols." 

Still, some care is taken to see that the minister 
keeps in the right path. His theology must be sound. 
He must walk straight between the lines of his par- 
ticular creed ; if he is caught out of the traces, up 
go the hands in holy horror. " Heresy ! " shriek the 
worthy deacons, — old dry-as-dust idiots, bald num- 
skulls, dried-up dunces, who know nothing but to 
gibber and squeak over their theological rot. " Her- 
esy ! " softly expostulates the ladies' society : the 
dear ladies ! what a pretty sight it is, — almost as 
bewitching as if this stir were caused by a mouse ! 
Scarcely a year or a six-month passes without such 
doctrinal troubles. What a list we have had of them 
in the last tAVO years ! There is little morality in 
all these theological quibbles. The fact is, morality, 
generally speaking, takes quite a secondary place in 



176 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

tlie Churcli. It is impossible to find it at all in tlie 
creed. 

In my early youth the pastor of the church my 
parents attended — a finely built, nice, popular man 
— found it necessary to abandon his flock to the cruel 
world, owing to an unfortunate scandal. The excite- 
ment it created, the nervous flutter and delicious con- 
sternation among the ladies, is very amusing to me 
now in later years. I remember the mysterious looks 
and nods of the women. I shall never forget that 
loving pastor's farewell Sunday : the blushing roses, 
the innocent lilies, the bold pinks that decked the 
altar, — a perfect bank of flowers, — the crowded 
church and the pompous music, but over and above 
all the touching sermon, so sweet and tender, so 
droopingly melancholy, it brought tears to all the 
ladies' eyes. As then in honest boyhood, it makes 
me sad to think of all that weeping. 

As I write these pages the bitterly hostile factions 
of another church have just received judgment from 
the Supreme Court of a great Commonwealth over 
just such a scandal, and the honest judge felt called 
upon to use these words to the litigants : " It is al- 
most a reproach on Christianity that brethren should 
be here contending under such circumstances. It is 
exceedingly painful to see people who have been 
formerly associated together in a church, coming here 
and contending, and passing each other by with 
averted faces. If they are governed by the spirit of 
the Master whom they serve, another Sunday will 
not pass without the wounds on each side being 
healed, and the differences settled." These kind 
people did not come together, but there are now two 
churches where there was one. No, the Church is 
not moral ; and it is honest here, if nowhere else, for 



THE CHUKCH. 177 

it persists in teaching that a perfectly moral life can- 
not win salvation. 

It is a fortunate thing that architects are not reli- 
gious men,. at least as the word goes. Were our ar- 
chitects imbued with a weak, sickly, milk-and-water 
religion, we should not have so many noble church 
edifices. But the way these churches are decorated 
is fairly ludicrous, and in some cases monstrously 
hideous. The ornamentation of an eastern pagoda 
is beautiful in the extreme as compared with the 
painted windows of some of these city churches. 
Here is a lamb in earnest conversation with a man ; 
and a more forlorn lamb never was seen. Here is an- 
other with a cross at shoulder-arms, marching on with 
his mouth open, as if in indication that he is speaking. 
This idea is further carried out by raising one of the 
forefeet, by way of gesture presumably, or else the 
painter intended it to support the cross. If we must 
have these creatures of the stable in our churches, do, 
in God's name, let the painter go out into the coun- 
try and see a nice frisky cosset, not a homely animal 
in the barnyard by any means. Again we find an 
Ecce Homo, the most hideous and senseless painting 
that ever a foolish and flippant public descended to 
praise, more hideous than Hogarth's worst, and almost 
utterly devoid of sense. 

The saints are forever walking down interminable 
paths with slow and doubtful step, as if themselves 
conscious of the fact that they are not making any 
progress. In this thej^ are emblematic of the Church. 
With meaningless, insipid faces they stand, with 
manuscript rolls under their arms, dressed in long 
robes and sandals, some with strings of fish, pre- 
sumably to catch the sporting eye, others with nets 
and crooks, snakes and chalice, mitre and cross, — 

12 



178 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

all a curious pantomime procession of harlequins. 
Ah, my dear brother in vesture, you dej^lore my 
taste ? Excuse me, have I hit your church ? 

Another window that I have seen reminded me of 
a picture I saw at the entrance of a dime museum, 
of a wonderful ossified man. Still another calls to 
mind a form of puzzle that used to be quite common 
in almanacs and on advertising cards. A tree would 
be drawn full of faces and animals artistically and 
ingeniously arranged in the branches, and the ground 
also would reveal, on rigid examination, many more 
similar designs. This window was drawn on the 
same principle apparently, and every time I saw it I 
discovered a new face. Looking over a vast number 
of churches, I have been able to find in them all but 
one solitary window that has any meaning or teaches 
any respectable lesson, and that too in a Unitarian 
Church, which, properly speaking, is scarcely Chris- 
tian at all in its tendency. This window is well 
worthy of description because of its moral, though 
poorly enough executed. It represents a large and 
powerful man standing knocking at a ponderous door. 
In his left hand he holds a lantern brightly shining 
in the darkness, — Diogenes Hunting for an Honest 
Man. As I intimated, the painting is not at all 
superior, — in fact, I never thought Diogenes was such 
a big, powerful man as he is here represented ; but 
the moral is unsurpassed. I sincerely hope my kind 
readers will diligently search the Unitarian churches 
of Boston until they find this truly remarkable 
window. 

With this one exception I have not found a single 
painted window, representing human or animal forms, 
worthy of praise in any respect. It is a lamentable 
fact, and yet I have heard more than one minister 



THE CHURCH. 179 

boast of his beautiful painted glass. Meanwhile chil- 
dren pinched with hunger and stupid from exposure 
were crying for food, — in one instance not a hundred 
rods from where we stood. 

Christ would not have such painted glass and 
hungry children. 

The newspapers recently contained a lengthy de- 
scription of some bronze doors which Mr. William 
Waldorf Astor has presented to Trinity Church, New 
York, in memory of his father. The designs are said 
to be magnificent, and the expense of putting them in^ 
will reach as high as $200,000, if not $300,000. Great 
heavens ! consider, $300,000 spent on the mere outside 
doors of a church built in honor of him who went bare- 
foot in Galilee some two thousand years ago ! This 
vast sum expended to stop the paltry entrance-holes 
in the walls of a big cathedral established to teach 
the simple morality of him who commanded his dis- 
ciples to take no money in their purses, no, nor so 
much as food to eat, and who cheerfully gave all he 
ever had to lighten the sorrows of the poor, so that 
the widow's heart sang for joy ! But the Church has 
ever been proud to wear a crown of gold, though the 
master had but a crown of thorns. The Church, 
eager to become powerful and sway the world, for- 
gets Christ's humble life and simple teachings. Here 
is money enough to build and equip ten nice school- 
houses, where alone thousands of children may go and 
learn that which will make them true men. What 
a monument of senseless folly ! It makes the heart 
sick. 

These magnificent churches are as dark as the tomb, 
and not half so cheerful as the quiet grave beneath the 
shady trees, whose pure fresh flowers gladden with a 
sweet joy the faithful lonely heart. Why must God's 



180 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

pure sunlight be rigidly excluded from his house of. 
worship ? It is not a simple, heartfelt thankfulness 
that builds such cold, gloomy structures ; it is not a 
holy service that is maintained within them. There 
is no heart here. It is all pomp and show and ex- 
travagant magnificence impersonating worship. If 
the opinion of these could have been consulted at the 
creation, what a dark, gloomy world we should have 
had ! All the birds would have been crows, the 
flowers gloomy hyacinths, upon whose petals would 
appear in the handwriting of Nature, as of old, the 
grievous exclamation " Alas ! " We should have the 
sun and the moon and the stars darkened, and the 
clouds return after the rain. 

If Christ could attend some of these pompous cere- 
monies, don't you think he would be inclined to act as 
he is said to have done once in the temple at Jerusa- 
lem ? Would that we had such a Messiah to-day to 
tear the mask from modern hypocrisy ! What do you 
think he would say of those who kneel in our gilded, 
carpeted, darkened, ill-ventilated temples of worship, 
mumbling a senseless prayer in the face and eyes of 
hundreds of people, the while gazing all about and ap- 
parently making inward comments ? What would he 
now say to that ? Whatever he would say he would 
speak not in hate, but in grief. Of all the cant there 
is in the world, how little is condemnable without 
pity! 

Last winter as I came out of a fashionable metro- 
politan church, I saw a little girl crying from the cold. 
Her hands were blue from exposure, and her face 
was pale and pinched. Quietly stepping one side, I 
determined to see what the people would do. Up- 
wards of a hundred passed, not one of whom offered 
to help this little child, though most of them saw her. 



THE CHURCH. 181 

At length a woman came along who took off her wrap 
and put it on the child, and led her home. As I 
turned away I thought, — I thought what Christ said 
about kindness to children ; and this woman, it seemed 
to me, was truly blessed, and appeared lovely in my 
eyes. This is not Christian, but it is natural ; it is 
Christ. I had a better sermon out of doors than 
within that morning; and I cannot think the great 
clergyman who preached would disagree with me. 

People are not intrinsically bad ; they are only lazy 
and thoughtless. They buy Virtue at a bargain, and 
think she ought to be honored by their condescension. 
It is a convenient way to be charitable, — this attend- 
ing a fine church, having a nice stuffed pew to sit in, 
and putting ten cents, or ten dollars, as an offering on 
a silver or gold plate in the hands of an usher in fault- 
less black, and muttering a pater noster, or perhaps a 
curse, if the sermon be poor or the singing bad. Two 
or three sermons a week, — that is what the Christian 
calls being good. Worldly people and worldly things 
they denounce. The poor may live in rags and 
squalor, they hold out no hand of help ; the sick may 
cry in their pain, they have no sympathy to offer. 
They cover their faces, stop their ears, and pass by 
on the other side. A great and kind man, one of the 
best that ever lived, was moved actually to say this 
hard thing of people whom he knew : " They went to 
church a half dozen times in the week ; they subscribed 
to many public charities. Their tribe was known eigh- 
teen hundred years ago, and will flourish as long as 
men endure. They will still thank heaven that they 
are not as other folks are, and leave the wounded and 
miserable to other succor." Some of these people 
actually found hospitals and other public charities, 
and withal never do a kind act in their lives. This 



182 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

is a charity that hurts the recipient ; and these nice 
people solemnly debate whether it does not hurt the 
pauper as much to accept the public soup as to 
steal it. 

Why, do you know, sometimes when I am in these 
magnificent places, and see all the sham and show, 
the paint and feathers, the miserable cant and hy- 
pocrisy, I feel afraid, and I almost think there is no 
truth and purity and sincerity at all in this world. I 
sigh with relief when I get out and breathe the fresh 
air. How noble does honest John Bunyan seem ! 
how true and earnest the Wesleys ! I have to recall 
noble, generous men that I have seen, and think of 
kind women that I know, ready to aid, — simple, 
kindly hearts and pure, — before I can shake off this 
chill so much worldliness has cast upon me. 

Do not mistake me ; I am not cynical or intolerant. 
If clergymen and their people find these things beauti- 
ful, I would not forbid or restrain their enjoyment. 
I would only lead them to know a higher joy, one that 
regards not self so much as others. My heart cries 
out against such things when blameless humanity is 
suffering all about us, and longing — oh, so earnestly ! 
— for light. The poor toiling masses are striving 
with all their might and main to rise, and too often 
our extended aid is but a hindrance. The Christ to 
whom you pray does not want such things, if I com- 
prehend him at all. I do not say you will die in sor- 
row and go to hell, if you will not give them up, but 
T know you will better merit heaven, and be doing a 
merciful deed by turning them to use in mitigating 
the suffering near you, and teaching men, especially 
children, real, helpful, moral, and worldly truth, if 
you please, not so much to die as to live by, -^ to live 
kindly, helpful lives, full of thought and consideration 



THE CHURCH. 183 

for others. It is a selfish thing to be thinking always 
of being ready and worthy to die. Let us learn a 
higher morality and a nobler generosity. Let us 
think more of living, and of living for others. 

Any one who thinks a moment over these character- 
istics of the clergy and their people to-day is forced to 
the conclusion that in general neither the one nor the 
other is really in earnest in their formal religion. 
Having attempted to give a general idea of the true 
condition of both clergy and people, I pass to a few- 
specific examples by way of illustration. The follow- 
ing page or two is devoted to the brief statement of 
matters that have been seriously debated in gatherings 
of the clergy of various denominations, and of opinions 
which several have openly expressed with reference 
to subjects under consideration. Sometimes the veiy 
words are quoted. 

Among the questions which occupied the attention of 
a great Methodist convention recently held was the all- 
important subject of precedence. It seems that some 
jealousy exists among the Methodists because the Epis- 
copalians arrogate to themselves a superiority over their 
brethren. The civil authorities, it is asserted, show 
preference for the services of Episcopalian clergymen 
on occasions of public celebration. If the Methodists 
were less Christian and more Christ-like, they would 
remember that Christ bade the invited guest to take a 
seat in the lowest room, rather than quarrel for the more 
conspicuous places. If they had more of the humble 
spirit of the master, they would be proud to ride the 
unpretending animal which Christ rode. Another ques- 
tion considered was the desirability of communicants 
sitting, instead of kneeling, at the Lord's Supper. Let 
them move carefully here ; for at the original Supper 
they neither sat nor kneeled, but probably reclined on 



184 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

couches. The ever-present discussion of the change 
of pastorate received the usual attention; while in- 
fant baptism was passed over in silence. 

The Presbyterians are all wrought up over creed 
revision. The frank statements of some of their 
prominent clergymen throw light, as will appear 
later, upon their lack of faith. " Elect infants " is 
an absorbing theme. Reprobation, infant damna- 
tion, damnation of heathen, classification of Roman 
Catholics as idolaters, and the declaration that the 
Pope is anti-Christ, — all have their turn. What 
with supralaxysarianism, infralapsarianisni, and pre- 
terition, they have their hands full. 

The Universalists are quarrelling over the word 
" restore " in their creed. Some say it implies 
original human perfection, and suggest "save," as 
a better word altogether. Again, they discuss 
whether '^holiness and true happiness are insepa- 
rably connected." 

The Episcopalians have the race question to settle. 
Is the negro a man, and as such fitted to be a com- 
municant ? The question seems to be decided in the 
negative at present. The precedents all incline that 
way. Sullivan refused to fight them, which ought 
to be enough for reasonable men. The size of the 
bishop's sleeves will cause as great a flurry as a scan- 
dal. They compromise their creed by allowing their 
churches a choice of two. The Baptists are crying for 
more water to cool their heated discussions over free 
will and foreordination ; and the American Board of 
Congregationalists spent most of its time a year ago 
trying to decide whether or not the heathen are eter- 
nally damned, and whether educated men who deny 
the proposition are fit to teach them truth and 
morality. 



THE CHURCH. 185 

But it is left to the Presbyterians to reveal the 
real opinions of the clergy upon creed and Scripture. 
Speaking for themselves, they really voice the senti- 
ments of the better and more advanced members of 
the profession generally. They have so far forgotten 
themselves as to blurt out the truth like angry 
schoolboys, though some speak from the force of con- 
viction, the result of long and troubled meditation. 
One of their number stated that he believed not five 
members of his church had ever read the confession ; 
and as for himself, he frankly admitted that he had 
not, and declared he would not read it. 

Consider the situation a moment. Not one of these 
good people, minister included, would fail carefully 
to read and deeply to ponder a deed of real estate 
located in this miserable world, before he gave it his 
signature. Yet all carelessly subscribe to, and the 
minister has for years persistently preached under, a 
creed which concerns their well-being not for a few 
years but for eternity, a creed which determines the 
relation not between mortal men but between im- 
mortal souls and God Almighty, and none knew what 
it contained. Do you think these worthy people care 
much about the religion they parade ? Why, they 
are actually ignorant of the very faith which they 
say they have, and one frankly confesses that he is 
ashamed of his religion. Does it occur to any one 
that he never had any religion worthy the name, — 
only a sham God, a hollow idol, a nominal faith ? 
Why should he be ashamed of his religion ? No 
blame can attach itself to the religion. It is but a 
chattel, so much printed paper. Rather the shame 
which he owns, multiplied a hundred fold, should be 
directed toward himself. As long as he tries to shift 
the burden off on his creed (why, he subscribed to it 



186 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

voluntarily, lie preached it willingly, no one forced 
him to it), he will never know what faith and reli- 
gion mean. 

Another of the same sect admits that his creed has 
no life in it, and yet complains because others say so. 
Solemnly accepting the confession at one moment, he 
suddenly turns about and deals it an underhanded 
blow the next. Another prominent divine declared 
that his creed had made him an infidel during ten 
of the best years of his life ; ^ and some of his 
hearers laughed so when he said he was not such a 
fool as he looked, that a protest against such levity 
was made. This same man declared that the Word 
of God was, after all, the "compilation of fallible 
men." A liberal vows he will, as in the past, dis- 
believe, ignore, and deny the doctrine of reprobation, 
to which nevertheless he owes allegiance. " Before 
all Israel and the sun," another points out absurd 
contradictions. Of course he knew that Israel was 
not there to hear him, and if it could have been, 
would have cared no more about what he said than 
the sun. 

These ministers have practised a pious fraud with 
sanctified ingenuity, which has enabled them for 
years to cheat their own consciences and deceive their 
innocent flocks. On the communion-table rests the 
elegant silver and gold service, the consecrated bread 
and the ruby wine, and under it slinks a slop-jar, to 
catch the inconvenient but inevitable leakage and 
dribblings. They have been accustomed to sign '' for 
substance of doctrine." 

What can be said of such a state of affairs ? In 
the words of still another subscriber, " When a 
church so largely ignores and condemns its own 

1 Dr. Ewer. 



THE CHURCH. 187 

standards, it is time to scrutinize both the church 
and the standards." There can be no doubt that 
this feeling of irresponsibility and practice of du- 
plicity exist in other churches as well. It is almost 
universal. It has appeared, though in another form, 
among the Methodists. The political jobbing and 
wire-pulling that those in a position to know assert 
exists in this great sect is quite as significant as the 
most startling revelations of Presbyterian insincerity. 
The shameless adoption of the most glaring political 
methods which has just come to light in the selection 
and confirmation of a newly elected Episcopal bishop 
in Massachusetts sufficiently reveals the state of af- 
fairs in this wealthy denomination. " The govern- 
ment of the Church has often been the subject, as 
well as the prize, of religious contention." If all this 
is true, — and it is the assertion of those who them- 
selves practise or have practised that which they 
now admit, or at least have until now silently ac- 
quiesced in, — the defiance penned hundreds of years 
ago against the bigoted and lying priesthood of a na- 
tion that has all but sunk to the level of barbarism, 
owing chiefly to ecclesiastical domination and tyr- 
anny, may aptly be flung in the face of the Protes- 
tant clergy of the present time in this enlightened 
land : — 

" Traitor, wilt thou never cease to slander and to lie ? 
You breakfast before mass ; you drink before you pray ; 
There is no honor in your heart, no truth in what you say : 
You cheat your comrade and your Lord, you flatter to betray ; 
Your hatred I despise, your friendship I defy, 
False to all mankind, and most to God on high." * 

Hypocrisy is the natural outcome of unfounded be- 
lief. When men, ruled by custom and society, profess 



188 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

what they do not believe, and teach what they detest, 
they abandon all moral principle. No longer honest 
with themselves, they do not scruple to be dishonest 
with others. Here is the secret of so many divine 
pretenders, tricksters, and deceivers. Religion and 
morality receive more real injury and discredit from 
hypocrites than from atheists and profligates. As the 
two in their purity are justly called the bonds of so- 
ciety, so when poisoned and corrupted by fraud, pre- 
tence, and affectation, they are the worst of civil 
curses, and have enabled men to perpetrate most 
shameful crimes and exercise most cruel tyranny. 

Thus far little or nothing has been said of the Ro- 
man wing of the great Catholic Church. It is not 
necessary to devote much space to Roman Catholi- 
cism. The creed which it taught in its schools and 
literature, and the ceremonies which it practised, and 
the methods which it employed in gaining proselytes 
and maintaining its members, are the same to-day as 
yesterday and a thousand years ago. Its principle is 
the same now that it was then. In reviewing the an- 
cient Church we practically review the modern Roman 
Catholic church. Remission of sins is for money now 
as then, though not so open as in the time of Tetzel. 
The policy of the church is now, and always has been, 
to keep its members in ignorance. It does not now, 
and never did, embrace and retain educated men in 
any considerable number. The educated American of 
Roman Catholic parentage attends a Protestant church, 
or none ; at any rate, he cares nothing for the faith of 
his ancestors. I have conversed with many such, and 
find this true of all. They have come to understand 
the policy of the church in keeping the people igno- 
rant, and consequently have outgrown it. Few attend 
the Protestant church; most .attend none. They say 



THE CHURCH. 189 

their churcli is little if any worse than others, and that 
all established religions are largely superstitions ; and 
in this they are right. 

As has been said before, the difference between the 
two wings consists not so much in the actual religious 
doctrines taught as in the underlying principle. One 
desires ignorant Christians ; the other desires edu- 
cated Christians. Neither would have people learn 
or know anything against their faith. One would 
have its members know only what pertains to Cath- 
olic worship, and that, too, in a blind, dull, childlike 
way ; the other desires its members to know every- 
thing except that which denies its faith. One be- 
lieves in non-sectarian common schools ; the other 
insists upon its doctrines being taught with great 
care and assiduity, and consequently builds the paro- 
chial school. Aside from this difference in the stan- 
dard of education and its direct results, there is no 
dissimilarity worthy of consideration between the 
two. Protestantism placed itself years ago on the 
side of liberty, while Catholicism took its stand with 
despotism. And yet with Protestantism freedom has 
had a hearing, not so much because of its teachings, 
but, on the contrary, in spite of them ; and in one 
sense little credit is due the system. The boy Free- 
dom has simply outgrown its father, and now has full 
sway. 

When all is said against the Koman church, there 
remains an unfeigned, involuntary admiration for the 
remarkable policy it has shown. It cannot be summed 
up better than in the words of the great English 
historian : — 

"It is impossible to deny that the policy of the Church of 
Rome is the very masterpiece of human wisdom. In truth, 
nothing but such a pohty could, against such assaults, have 



190 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

borne up such doctrines. The experience of twelve hundred 
eventful years, the ingenuity and patient care of forty genera- 
tions of statesmen, have improved that polity to such perfec- 
tion that among the contrivances which have been devised for 
deceiving and oppressing mankind, it occupies the highest 
place. The stronger our conviction that reason and Scripture 
were decidedly on the side of Protestantism, the greater is the 
reluctant admiration with which we regard that system of 
tactics against which reason and Scripture were employed 
in vain." 

The same writer says the Roman church " was great 
and respected before Saxon had set foot on Briton, be- 
fore the Frank had crossed the Rhine, when Grecian 
eloquence still flourished in Antioch, when idols were 
still worshipped in the temple of Mecca ; and she 
may still exist in undiminished vigor when some trav- 
eller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast 
solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London 
Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." There will 
always be a great number of ignorant people in 
this world, and these will for generations be Roman 
Catholics. 

Returning to the Church in general, there is abun- 
dant reason for its present status. The peculiar 
veneration for old ceremonies, forms, and traditions 
is perfectly natural. Antiquity always calls out more 
or less reverence. The Church, however, is particu- 
larly likely to excite such feelings from its remark- 
able history. For fifteen hundred years the mighty 
Catholic Church was believed by all to be directly 
under the authority and guidance of God, who mirac- 
ulously interfered to control its destiny, and to render 
its infallibility unquestionable. The Reformation ex- 
ploded in a measure this theory, though it was quite 
general centuries later, indeed even till the present 



THE CHURCH. 191 

century. While the Eeformation exposed the fallacy 
of this theory, and protested against its continued 
adoption, it left a confused feeling that theological 
doctrines were different from other doctrines. There 
was apparent hesitation even among the leaders in 
this great step, and it naturally increased among 
their followers. This feeling of uncertainty with 
regard to Scriptural and ecclesiastical infallibility, 
combined with the influence of public policy, satisfac- 
torily explains the present position of the Christian 
Church. We have a peculiar awe in contemplation of 
things that seem beyond our comprehension. When 
we ourselves grow to understand them, and to appre- 
ciate the fact that we alone do understand, while the 
masses are almost hopelessly buried in ignorance, 
public policy steps in and suggests that for the igno- 
rant falsehood may be as good as truth, or even bet- 
ter than truth temporarily. Hundreds of the clergy 
frankly admit this to be their belief, while few in- 
deed have not heard many outside the clergy make 
the assertion. When the lion associates with the 
fox, he is ashamed only of the fox, not of his tricks. 
Names carry so much more to our minds than acts. 

There is one other sweeping accusation to be made 
against the Church, — an accusation, however, of a 
different character in some respects from others. The 
Church, as a body corporate, generally secures exemp- 
tion from taxation. It refuses to give Csesar his due, 
though the master, whom it pretends to serve, grace- 
fully paid tribute. It may well be urged, by way of 
excuse, that the public voluntarily exempts church 
property from taxation. And yet this excuse is not 
altogether satisfactory. This privilege given the 
Church is not as voluntary as it seems ; and, indeed, 
the public are beginning openly to express their dis- 



192 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

satisfaction with such an extravagant liberality. In 
at least one State in the Union this exemption from 
taxation is extended only to aid new and weak socie- 
ties in gaining a start, and accordingly it is expressly 
provided that church property above five thousand 
dollars in value shall be taxed ; and in all the States, 
and in other countries, only that property which is 
used for church purposes is exempted. 

Little could be said against the Church in this re- 
spect, were it not for the deliberate dishonesty con- 
stantly and systematically practised by societies to 
avoid taxation. They no sooner have the privilege 
than they begin to abuse it, and that most shame- 
fully, as an illustration or two will plainly show. It 
has been said that in one State church property above 
the value of five thousand dollars is subject to taxa- 
tion. What is the result ? Simply this : that not a 
church corporation in the whole extent of that enor- 
mous and wealthy State admits that it holds property 
above this limit. In other words, the wealthy churches 
of that State, without exception, deliberately, wilfully, 
and systematically practise open falsehood. Few in- 
stitutions are better able to pay taxes than church 
societies, and none are so unwilling, and go to greater 
lengths to avoid taxation. In the very heart of Puri- 
tanical 'New England, a church society has for years 
openly held property not in use for church purposes 
exempt from taxation, and that, too, when the news- 
papers of the Commonwealth have repeatedly exposed 
and denounced the fraud so disgracefully persisted in. 
Why, that church, it is said, actually constituted its 
Sunday-school as a body corporate to hold and use 
occasionally the property in question, so that it might 
have some excuse to offer, thus making children an 
innocent party to its pious fraud. 



THE CHUECH. 193 

The exemption so readily claimed and abused by 
the Church works a palpable injustice. It throws a 
burden of taxation upon the public, part of whom, 
from conscientious motives, protest against paying 
taxes for such purposes, and all of whom have the 
constitutional assurance that they shall never be 
taxed to maintain religious worship. If the Church 
were honest, or even possessed of fair morality, this 
alone would be enough to cause it to renounce all its 
extraordinary privilege of exemption. The truth is, 
the Church is greedy and avaricious in the extreme. 
She never admits she has her due. Pretending to 
work ever for her pretended master, she spits as of 
old in his face. Possessed of untold wealth, the 
amount of which she scrupulously and laboriously 
keeps profoundly secret, she persists that she is 
poor, and lies and cheats, oftentimes foisting her 
sanctified fraud upon the innocent, to conceal her 
vast possessions. In general, she is most proud of 
that for which she should feel the most shame. She 
is proud of her traditions and the antiquity of her 
beliefs, proud of her orthodoxy and tyranny, proud 
of her power, proud of her impotent childish faith, 
proud of her obstinacy in adhering to old customs and 
ceremonies confessedly grown useless, proud of her 
contempt for heresy and her love for bigotry, proud 
of the eternal vigilance with which she has warded 
off all attempts at improvement and liberality. 

It appears, then, that there is much that is exceed- 
ingly discreditable in the Church. We find this reli- 
gion and Church of respectability open to severe 
criticism. We discover that mere words and cere- 
monies, rather than ideas, attract attention. Too 
many, slaves to form, think themselves religious when 
they are only bigoted and superstitious. Eeligion 

13 



194 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

does not consist in "bowing to the veiled stone.'' To 
go much to church, to repeat prayers, to wear short 
hair, to fast at Lent, and to give alms is neither 
charity nor purity of heart. We find a class of people 
who think themselves so holy as to be incapable of 
doing anything to displease God, and who boast that 
they have not sinned for years. We find people 
parading sanctity who are without virtue, honor, and 
shame. Religion, we learn, has no place in the heart, 
home, or conversation of hundreds who call them- 
selves pious and who preach piety. It is sad to think 
of how many Christians it is true that their religion 
is " to make a noise therewith." 

The religion of the modern Church seems almost to 
inculcate hate rather than love, and fraud rather than 
honesty. The Church in a way does a vast amount of 
charity. Millions are yearly contributed to home and 
foreign missions, and yet there is little love in it all. 
How many church-members do good personally where 
they can do good to the very best advantage ; namely, 
in their own street or neighborhood or city ? People 
wish to obtain the credit of virtue, but not to earn it. 
They take tickets in a moral lottery. They join the 
church more desirous of seeming virtuous than being 
good. They wish to be rid of conscience, and so they 
shift it off into the church. Indulgences are sold in 
the Protestant, as well as in the Catholic church ; in- 
deed the custom is more prevalent, if anything, in the 
Protestant church. Decent formalism must live even 
at the expense of earnest helpfulness. Church-mem- 
bership means simply paying pew-rent. 

But with all its faults, is there not something credi- 
table in this stupendous church system ? Have we 
not made progress as the centuries have flown ? It 
is true, indeed, that reforms creep slowest into the 



THE CHURCH. 195 

Church. Superstition dies hard. The fact itself 
shows how little people care for doctrinal religion, 
after all. While science and the arts make vast 
strides year by year, religion is almost stationary. 
People have no time in this world's activity to think 
of creed and doctrine. Only a small number of men 
spend even a small part of one day in seven to think 
of such things. In our world activity we must rest 
on the seventh day ; we cannot worry and fret about 
dogma and theology. As a matter of fact, we do not. 
And yet the Church has made much progress during 
the last century or two. Even the adoption of new 
and improved methods of building has its effect upon 
religion. Churches are built in new styles, more con- 
venient and cheerful, and their creeds bend slowly to 
conform to the new pattern. In this way, indirectly, 
the Church has slowly but surely tagged on after 
material progress. It always keeps about so far 
behind the times. If it lags a little in the early part 
of a century, it takes a leap forward in the later years. 
The whole body seems now on the point of a sudden 
unfolding. 

Unitarianism is the leader of church progress at 
present. To it in a great measure is due the increas- 
ing liberal spirit of the day ; and yet perhaps in the 
statement occasion is confounded with cause. The 
real cause lies rather in the material and intellectual 
progress of the world. But let Unitarianism have its 
due. It alone has honestly and boldly thrown down 
the gauntlet. It absolutely and utterly abandons 
Christianity in its essence, and seeks Christ rather. 
Its idea is a life like that of Christ, rather than a 
Christian life. The latter comes from the old ortho- 
dox, infallible Bible ; the former, from that grand old 
world history, the Bible. The teaching of this sect is 



196 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

chiefly moral. One of its ministers comes to mind, — a 
simple, high-souled man, the burden of whose sermons 
is noble, true living. Without what are commonly 
called the graces of oratory, but plain and simple and 
homely in speech and manner, not eager to create a 
sensation, scorning show and studied effect, calcium 
lights and rhetorical mannerisms, Sunday after Sun- 
day in his plain, simple way he draws out the sweetest 
and purest things in life. I shall never forget the 
thrill of pleasure I experienced one morning in his 
church. It was by chance communion Sunday. After 
the sermon he quietly reminded the congregation that 
it was communion Sunday, and added the hope that 
all members of his own society and of " all societies 
in this city and elsewhere, yes, and members of none, 
are cordially invited." There is in this sect a great 
possibility. It is a suggestion of a magnificent future, 
a symptom of a religious revolution, not to be accom- 
plished in a day or a generation or a century, but sure 
to come with more widely extended education. The 
hope of the world rests on education. A schoolhouse 
is a temple indeed. This little sect in mind is a germ 
soon to attain a mighty growth, a leaven to leaven the 
loaf. 

I cannot refrain from offering in this connection 
words recently spoken by the Unitarian clergyman, 
above referred to : — 

" As Unitarians, what assurances we have that we are on 
the right reUgious track I All the real thinkino; of the time 
in all the other churches is right along our line. But I want 
the liberal religious life of the future to be built on lines of 
freedom, and not to be taken, as it were, ' on the sly.' The 
men in all the other churches who are preaching the same 
things for which we have been contending so long, are doing 
so with the startling effect of inconsistency. The trouble is 



THE CHURCH. 197 

that a great deal of this broad Christianity of Christ is being 
taught in churches which profess to stand for something else. 
. . . The kingdom of God is not coming by organization nor 
big conferences. What we need to-day is to take a stronger 
hold on simple religion. In our reaction against the false 
pieties of other churches, we must not grow weak in our own 
piety." 

Keligion is a superstition just as long as ministers 
of the Gospel exercise peculiar and arbitrary power 
by virtue of their profession alone. We shall have 
religious emancipation just as soon as people realize 
that the minister is no longer priest and prophet, in 
whom resides especial intelligence, but is worthy of 
respect and love only as he is a true man, working, 
not for a peculiar system of theology, but for what- 
ever adds to real, sound, practical virtue, and enables 
people to stand before their friends and the world 
honest, earnest, noble men. This is what Christ 
stands for, and I think it is what every great re- 
former has taught each in his own field. A man 
is worth just what those things are worth about 
which he busies himself. 

The liberal spirit all down the line is seeking a 
moral life. Orthodox faith and doctrinal theology 
are becoming of less and less importance to educated 
minds. Imposition and ignorance will not last for- 
ever. When the service of God becomes a senseless 
mummery, a mere thing of words and ceremonies, — 
in short, as a great writer has said, when the Church 
from being the world's guide has come to be the 
world's scandal, fearless men will rise, confident in 
truth and justice, and denounce it and all its minions 
as a sham and an imposition. This has been done 
once, and will be done again. The most hopeful sign 
of the present is that many from the Church itself 



198 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

stand, in words at least, in open opposition to ecclesi- 
astical thraldom and doctrine. The physician, experi- 
menting on his own person with his remedies, finds 
that they are useless, or even absurd and harmful, 
and frankly says so. Progressive men will thank 
hira even for this, though he continue to dose his 
patients with the old pills, for they realize that it is 
but another short step to complete emancipation. 

We are in a transition period at present. During 
such times there is always more or less disingenuous- 
ness. Hypocrisy flourishes. Everything has an un- 
natural ring, and seems unreal. People waver and 
hesitate to take a bold stand on disputed points, and 
are unwilling to commit themselves until there is 
more certainty in the final issue. But the potent 
fact remains, that this generation finds all the pro- 
gressive sects — that is, the general Church — inclin- 
ing more and more to liberality in teaching and belief. 
The Church does not require that its proselytes pos- 
sess profound knowledge of theology or metaphysics, 
or even have a passing knowledge of its individual 
creeds. The creeds are mere forms, and are so re- 
garded by their subscribers. It asks rather that men 
shall be honest and sincere, that they shall be true to 
the light which they have, and fearless and untiring 
in worldly good. It recognizes that conscience is no 
privilege of the great, or of tliose in vestments ; that 
kindness and generosity have little to do with theol- 
ogy. Now duty becomes a study and a practice, and 
no longer a mere name. Finally, this generation in 
a great measure appreciates the fact that there is no 
such absolute revealed connection between any one 
priesthood, or system of faith, and true religion, the 
true God, as to cut off all or any of the other forms. 
People recognize that priesthoods and churches are 



THE CHURCH. 199 

their own creation and their servants. They know 
tliat church government, forms of worship, and ec- 
clesiastical ceremonies are not matters of religious 
faith, but that they are matters of public policy, vary- 
ing, just as political government varies, to suit public 
emergency, or as rules of etiquette conform to the 
taste and requirements of society. Such rules and 
forms are framed, not from tradition, but from general 
expediency. 

The priesthood are permitted in a measure, it is 
true, to settle these forms as they please, but really 
they possess only a semblance of power. For a time 
they may take the reins into their own hands ; but 
it is only because the people care little about their 
doings anyway, not even enough to inquire what they 
are, so long as they occasion no sweeping change and 
establish no radical regulations. When such a meas- 
ure is adopted, or when by gradual increments con- 
siderable power is gained, and odious regulation 
attempted, then the people simply refuse to be influ- 
enced, church receipts fall off, and membership wanes ; 
and finally the clergy get together and adopt new 
rules and regulations, creeds and doctrines, more in 
harmony with the existing opinion of the laity. The 
past year or two actually reveals the practical work- 
ing of this principle. 

For five hundred years more or less the Church has 
not dared to assert temporal authority. It always has 
had, however, and under its present constitution it 
always will have, a desire for such power so long as 
it is earnest and honest. But withal displaying con- 
siderable intolerance and narrowness, it has been, on 
the whole^ a beneficial institution of the highest order, 
and may now be rendered such, — softening the man- 
ners, refining the habits, and comforting the sorrows 



200 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

of humanity. He who does not have a kind thought 
and a cheering word for it is an ingrate, for it has in 
part enabled him to be what he is. If it display inca- 
pacity to adapt itself to the progress of civilization, 
it will simply be swept away, like the similar institu- 
tions of the past, and be numbered among the relics 
of religious faith. But if such a change ever be con- 
summated, — and judging from the history of the past, 
there is no reason to expect anything else. — the 
essence of true religion and the elements of noble 
manhood will still survive, of which the highest 
manifestation is love for others. 



DOGMA, 201 



V. 

DOGMA. 

" But still my human hands are weak 
To hold your iron creeds ; 
Against the words ye bid me speak 
My heart within me pleads. 

" I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground 
Ye tread with boldness shod ; 
I dare not fix with mete and bound 
The love and power of God." 

EVERY person knows, or thinks lie knows, more 
about certain things than any other person. 
People of similar views on particular subjects get to- 
gether and form sects or parties, and give out their 
theories as indisputable axioms. I suppose this will 
be so as long as the human race exists. The only- 
change to be expected is with reference to the sub- 
jects conceroing which people form decided opinions. 
Thus, in the political sphere, slavery was once the all- 
absorbing subject of dispute, but now it has yielded to 
other questions, which in turn will give place to still 
others. 

Of all the subjects concerning which civilized people 
have held divided opinions of varying character, none 
will compare with that of the Christian religion. Eor 
their belief Christians have sacrificed everything, — 
their peace and prosperity, their homes, their wives, 
and their children. The course of Christian progress, 



202 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

marked it is true with countless monuments of last- 
ing benefit to the human race, and adorned with price- 
less treasures of education and culture, is yet stained 
to crimson with the blood of innumerable sacrifices, 
some of which form the most awful tales human his- 
tory relates. Nothing can be worse than religious 
tyranny. Tyranny, however, is never possible but in 
the ignorance of subjects. It attacks the vital part 
of the masses ; it exercises its awful sway, owing to 
the weaknesses of the multitudes. In religion it is 
not satisfied with this world, but boldly strides into 
the next ; it chains the body on earth, and delivers 
the soul bound in eternity. 

It is very common to find people that are well edu- 
cated and practical in the general affairs and concerns 
of life who yet reveal a shallowness of mind and ex- 
hibit a pettiness of sentiment, lack of moderation, and 
love of bigotry in religious matters that is fairly as- 
tonishing, and that reflects little credit upon the faith 
which they profess. They manifest the strangest, 
most unreasonable zeal over the one thing of all upon 
which they have expended the least thought, and for 
which they really care little or nothing. Born and 
bred to certain theological views, they cannot conceive 
of others ; and the heat of unreasoning discussion calls 
out excessive zeal. Dean Swift's comical analyzation 
of zeal is suggestive. He says it proceeded from a 
notion to a word, and then in a hot summer ripened 
into a tangible substance. 

" It is the infamous strength, perversity, and stub- 
bornness of the devil," says the Church, when men re- 
ject her absurdities. The creed and confession of. 
bigotry is simply this : " I am right, and you are wrong. 
I will force you to be right. When you are strong, 
you ought to tolerate me^ because I am right, and it 



DOGMA. 203 

is your duty to listen to truth ; but when I am strong, 
I shall persecute you, because you are wrong, and it 
is my duty to correct error/' Says George III. : " The 
times certainly require the concurrence of all who 
wish to prevent anarchy. I have no wish but the 
prosperity of my own dominions ; therefore I must 
look upon all who do not heartily assist me as bad 
men as well as bad subjects." He wished nothing 
but good ; therefore all who disregarded his wishes 
were traitors, and deserved to be hanged. Passion 
and conceit make up for defects in logic. Remember- 
ing that the Church has been the prize of religious 
quarrels, it is easy to find reason for especial zeal and 
intolerance among the clergy. 

The Christian Church has never enjoyed a greater 
latitude of faith and practice than at its very begin- 
ning ; and this is not saying much. Sects that scarcely 
manage to exist at all and maintain their own against 
powerful opposition have enough to occupy their at- 
tention without internal contention, to say the least. 
And yet it is surprising how quickly dissension sprang 
up among the early Christians, even before the or- 
ganization could fairly be called a church. Christ 
himself always evaded the attempts of the Jewish and 
Pagan priesthood to narrow him down to a creed, or 
any concise statement of his belief ; and as the Scrip- 
tures stand to-day, there is scarcely a word which is 
attributed to Christ that can be called narrow and 
dogmatic. On the contrary, when we think but a 
moment, many instances of unexpected liberality of 
sentiment and teaching come to mind, — as, for in- 
stance, his definition of " neighbor " and his ready 
pen-picture of God dividing the children of men to 
the right and the left hand according to their good 
deeds, and assigning to each due reward or deserved 



204 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

punishment. And in every instance where dogmatic 
construction of his words has entered in, it will be 
found on examination that that particular expression 
or idea is but accessory and incidental, and by no 
means the central and essential thought. 

The doctrines of heaven and hell, which Christian 
theology has elaborately drawn out, are woven from 
the merest hints and suggestions of Christ. The hor- 
rors of hell are rather Christian than Christ's. It 
would be difficult to ascribe to him such sentiments ; 
and from words which are authoritatively given as his 
own the Christian idea of heaven seems to have been 
very distasteful to him, and he is called upon again 
and again to deny the statements and rebuke the discus- 
sions of his followers, who pictured to their minds a 
real physical heavenly kingdom, with streets of gold; 
and cities of unheard-of magnificence, and thrones of 
surpassing splendor. Christ was continually rebuking 
his followers and people in general for their persis- 
tent regard of the letter at the expense of the spirit. 
The Church from its very foundation to this moment 
has always and continually erred right at this point, 
often with a blind stubbornness seemingly born of the 
devil himself. 

It did not take long for dogma to creep into Chris- 
tian belief and practice. We j&nd in the holy book 
itself Paul withstanding Peter to the face on account 
of his doctrine. We detect frequent mention of heated 
and bitter discussion among the early disciples in the 
very presence and hearing of Christ. There is noth- 
ing unnatural in this. We have but to go back, each 
in his own district, to the last political campaign to 
understand in a measure the early Christian disputes ; 
or, better yet, to recall the scenes in the American 
Board, or the Andover heresy. The Christians con- 



DOGMA. 205 

sidered every one a heretic and a heathen who did not 
accept their faith, and their priests encouraged the 
practice. The priests were soon ready to condemn 
any layman of poor estate who pretended to have any 
original ideas on religious questions. Such assump- 
tion on the part of the uninitiated and unconsecrated 
is always very offensive to the ecclesiastical order, and 
is promptly resented. The usurpation of Christ's 
teaching by dogmatic Christianity was speedy. In 
place of simple, quiet, home worship came the church, 
Avith its candles and ceremonies ; in place of secret 
prayer, public supplication; in place of freedom of 
belief, enforced Christianity, instead of honest and 
heartfelt moral fervor, fixed ceremonies and responses : 
the heart is supplanted by church discipline. 

The primitive Christians soon acquired a perfect 
abhorrence of anything Pagan. Pagan spectacles and 
festivals they were forbidden to attend or witness. 
The marriage of their Pagan friends they might not 
solemnize ; for even marriage itself was a curse, a 
necessary evil, tolerated at all only because it seemed 
necessary. Prom their death-sacrifices and burial 
rites they scrupulously absented themselves. The 
rigorous discipline of the church extended to the mi- 
nutest details, — to the care of the beard, the gait, 
the ornaments of dress, and manner of speech. The 
conduct of marriage and the sexual relation was se- 
verely scrutinized and vigilantly guarded. The rules 
and regulations adopted with regard to the latter 
seem incredible, if considered a moment seriously. 
In short, before a century had passed after the death 
of Christ, we find existing among his successors al- 
most as much bigotry and intolerance as the Church 
has ever shown, even in the height of its power. 

A century later the election of successors to the 



206 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

apostles was attended with all the disgraceful scenes, 
selfish and petty passions, treachery and dissimula- 
tion, deeply hidden conspiracy and open corruption, 
and but too often with the public violence, which 
characterized the general political changes of the 
times. The Church in the East had already become 
an ecclesiastical prize, and the spoils were doled out 
in a manner that would raise the blush on the cheek 
of a modern political manager. The holy presbyter 
seeking preferment would promise to share the treas- 
ures of the Church with his accomplices and constitu- 
ents. There were plenty of Judases who were enabled 
to live in luxury and idleness by a frequent applica- 
tion to the bag, and to gain advancement and honor 
by a sanctified betrayal of the Church. 

The early Church did not gain such power in the 
West as quickly as in the East. Rome was a mis- 
sionary field, the last of the early Church. But soon 
it became the great centre of the system. Indeed, on 
the accession of Diocletian, in 284, Christianity had 
become well established, and many churches were con- 
stantly maintained, and creditable houses of worship 
erected. But Christian progress in the West received 
a severe blow during the reign of Diocletian. Then it 
was that the catacombs became the home of the faith- 
ful during this last and severe persecution. Mean- 
while in the East the Church was daily gaining 
strength and rapidly growing powerful, gathering cor- 
ruption, dissension, and crime with increasing power. 
Before the end of the third century the Christian 
priestcraft had become literally a curse, so that on 
the accession of Constantine, the quasi-Christian, 
semi-converted by the sign of the cross in the heav- 
ens, it became necessary to issue edicts forbidding 
the rich from taking orders ; for ecclesiastics were 



DOGMA. 207 

exempted from public and private service and office, 
and personal taxes and contributions. Other edicts 
were also issued forbidding bishops to admit new 
ecclesiastics before vacancies should arise from the 
death of incumbents. The Church had an endless 
procession of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, 
exorcists, readers, singers, and doorkeepers, and the 
tawdry pomp of religious worship assumed the pro- 
portions of a wealthy organization. 

After Constantine granted to his subjects the un- 
restricted privilege of bequeathing their possessions 
to the Church, ecclesiastical revenues became princely. 
Constantine set the example by his own liberality. 
Hundreds, after dissolute lives, left all their fortune 
to the Church in hope of divine favor. The Church 
early guarded against the people. All its doings were 
mysterious and profoundly secret. Scandals were 
checked early, corruption concealed, and crime quickly 
covered over. The bishops enjoyed the privilege of 
trial only by their peers in all civil as well as crimi- 
nal cases, and even in capital accusation. Civil 
causes brought by or against the ecclesiastical order 
in general were never heard by any secular tribunal. 
The disgrace of public trial was kindly withheld. 
The Pagan privilege of the sanctuary was revived 
among the Christians ; and so the lives and posses- 
sions of desirable proselytes might easily be protected 
by the influence of the bishop. The bishop was the 
censor of morals and faith. The Church bound and 
loosed on earth with supreme authority. After suffi- 
cient admonition, the bishops gave up the stubborn to 
the abhorrence of earth and heaven, barred from the 
name of Christian, the privilege of worship, and the 
hope of heaven. The faithful are exhorted to shun 
the society of sinners, to deny them food, to withhold 



208 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the common courtesies and kindnesses of society, and 
even to refuse decent rites of burial. When we re- 
member that this was before the fifth century, all 
cause of wonder at the power exercised by the Ro- 
man church in the tenth and fifteenth centuries 
vanishes. 

The power of the Christian Church was long con- 
centrated in the East. After the conversion of Con- 
stantine, a conversion political rather than religious, 
the Christians had full sway. A very brief account 
of the prosperity of the cause may well be given. 
Allusion has been made to the general condition of 
the Church during the rule of Constantine. The fa- 
mous Milan Decree, in 313, had made Christianity the 
state religion of the great Eoman Empire, whose seat 
was now moved to Constantinople. In 325 we have the 
great Nicean Council, which denounced Arianism and 
adopted what is to this day known as the Nicean Creed. 

Eifty years later witnessed a strange event. Bar- 
barian Goths, dwelling on the banks of the Danube, 
who had repeatedly made war against the Empire, 
now humbly begged permission to settle in Thrace 
and become suppliant Roman subjects. This boon 
was granted on a peculiar condition ; namely, that all 
accept Christianity and be baptized in the faith, giving 
their children as hostages. This unique event is a 
curious but fruitful commentary on the potency of 
Christian authority at the time. Soon we find the 
Vandals posing as Christians in Africa. Then came 
the conquest of Africa by Justinian, in the early part 
of the sixth century. Again we have a good commen- 
tary on Christian power. Who is it that advocates 
the contest, and spurs on the hesitating emperor ? A 
Christian bishop, who says : " It is the will of heaven 
that you abandon not your holy enterprises for the 



DOGMA. 209 

deliverance of the African churcli. The God of 
battles shall march before your standards, and scatter 
your enemies who are the enemies of his Son." For 
the African church was Arian in creed, and Arianism 
was declared heresy by the Nicean Council. 

Italy was next reconquered, having been overrun 
by the Goths, lieverses followed in quick succession, 
until finally we find the Persians glorying in triumph 
over the Christian Empire under Heraclius, early in 
the seventh century. Then the Saracens appear on 
the scene, and, after a series of triumphs continuing 
for several centuries, we find Christianity in the East 
changed from a shining light to a dying ember. 

But in the mean time among the barbarians of the 
West, the Teutonic races, soul of modern civilization, 
the light of the Christian religion was enkindled. 
These rough, hearty people embraced the faith with 
no half-hearted ardor. Neither they nor their de- 
scendants thus far have ever been content with half- 
way courses. Even in the fifth century Christian 
bishops found the powerful Clovis a whole-souled 
convert, after their god gave him victory over his 
enemies. These people were converted by tribes. 
When they were losing in battle and had called upon 
their own gods in vain, at the advice of some Christian 
priest they called upon the Christian god for aid, 
promising him allegiance if he gave them victory. At 
Rome the Christians, who as early as the fifth cen- 
tury had power to cause the suspension of the gladia- 
torial games, were busily engaged in extending their 
faith and perfecting their system. It was during 
these centuries before the Middle Ages that the Roman 
church laid the foundations of that remarkable system 
of church polity which has in modern times excited 
the unfeigned admiration of the civilized world. 

14 



/210 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

But it is the practical side of dogmatism which is 
intended to be emphasized here particularly. What 
has religious dogma actually done as practised by 
Christians of all ages ? This is the question with 
which I shall concern myself chiefly at present. If 
there is any especial devil in this world, it is religious 
dogma. Like evil spirits in general, it almost always 
allies itself with ignorance. Learned dunces form 
one of its chosen fields. Knowledge often consists in 
the adoption of new prejudices in place of old ones. 
Wherever and whenever dogmatism flourishes, sour, 
long-drawn faces, and severe, are to be found. It is 
accompanied with fiendish cruelties. Hard, uncom- 
promising characters abound, steeped in a cruel, 
morose selfishness. Another phase which it com- 
monly assumes manifests itself in the drawling, 
whining voice, which, carried to its legitimate extreme, 
results in the chatter and gibber of fools and the yells 
of madmen. We find Christians fasting from food 
and drink, the while greedy for bribes and bloodshed. 
We find Christians cursing innocent amusements, 
who rejoice and give thanks for massacres. We find 
Christians burning witches and hanging heretics, who 
wink at crime and immorality. We find them teach- 
ing of the love and kindness of God, in terms, withal, 
of most violent hatred and revolting cruelty. We 
find Christians preaching against the outward show, 
whose inner man is a dwarfed and deformed monster ; 
against hypocrisy, against untruthfulness, folly, and 
crime, whose lives are a sham and a delusion and a 
lie. E-eligion may be a beautiful star of light and 
guidance, or again it may be a star like that in the 
Revelation, which fell from heaven, burning as it were 
a lamp, upon the fountains and rivers, and changed 
them into wormwood. 



DOGMA. 211 

During tlie first four centuries, according to our 
present reckoning, we find few outrages and mas- 
sacres perpetrated by the Christians. They them- 
selves rather were the parties to suffer. They were 
then the weaker party. And it cannot be disputed 
that they were at different times shamefully per- 
secuted ; but it must be admitted that this treatment 
they often brought upon themselves. Persecution 
and violence were often reluctantly practised by the 
Pagans against them. A government whose author- 
ity is denied and whose representatives are cursed 
and ignored, is obliged to resort to violent means in 
asserting its power and maintaining its dominion 
over such refractory classes, be they right or wrong 
in theory. Kings and governors cannot tolerate what 
will not tolerate them. Many anarchists and nihil- 
ists to-day are thoroughly honest in their belief and 
practice, and other generations may come to consider 
their ideas right ; but still we think they are wrong, 
at least in method, and so the power of government 
is exerted against them, and their liberty is restrained 
when they resort to violent demonstrations, and their 
lives taken when they defy all law and order, and at- 
tempt openly to overthrow existing government. It 
would not be a difficult thing to find very many edu- 
cated people who openly advocate the total extermina- 
tion of anarchists and nihilists, whether they practise 
violence or simply teach their peculiar doctrines, by 
any and every effectual means. This is but the same 
feeling which prompted the early persecutions. 

If we cannot find during the early centuries the 
numerous atrocities of subsequent generations, at 
least it is not because the spirit is wanting; and we 
shall not have to wander far from the Scripture it- 
self — infallible, holy revelation — to find the temper 



212 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

of Christianity. The writings in the New Testa- 
ment have been proved, beyond question, to cover 
a period, roughly speaking^ of from three to ten cen- 
turies. It is now clear that much that was supposed 
to have been written during the first century really 
belongs to much later periods. A few quotations 
will serve to reveal the spirit of the holy fathers 
during these years. Early in the new dispensation 
we have the war-cry sounded. It is well that the 
herald go before, though strange that good people 
have so completely failed to hear his proclamation. 
Like the stupid lamb in the fable, they cannot tell 
the wolf from the master. 

" Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I come 
not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man 
at variance against his father, and the daughter against her 
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." 

The bigot overstepped himself this time ; he need 
surely not have included the mother-in-law and 
daughter-in-law in the category, for they could well 
answer for themselves. These words are put into 
the mouth of Christ ; but it is needless to suggest 
that in all probability they are not his at all. Christ 
ma}^ well have taught that right is above family con- 
siderations ; but few people will believe that he con- 
sidered it any part of his mission to foster human 
hatred and dissension. These early teachers, like 
their modern brethren, used to preach many things 
that Christ never dreamed of, and they had the same 
felicitous way of putting their doctrines into the 
mouth of Christ that their successors have had down 
to the present day. Doubtless, they thought people 
would deem their coin of more value if they could in 



DOGMA. 213 

some way stamp the image of Christ upon it ; and, 
like their successors, they judged rightly. What 
would people care for the thunders of the American 
Board, — they do not any longer, — did it not con- 
spicuously display the seals, wafers, and stamp of 
God's authority and jurisdiction ? Until within a 
few years the Church had convinced the common 
people that its doctrines were the infallible word of 
God, and they gave implicit credence though the 
teachings were worthy of the devil ; and it must 
be admitted that a good deal of this spirit exists 
to-day. 

" The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which 
do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there 
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." 

This is a glorious Christian refrain, — a true, holy, 
and sanctified Laus Domini. It occurs again and 
again, like certain Episcopal responses, and in a 
manner similar to the interjections of the Greek 
chorus in high tragedy. Now the curtain rises upon 
a wedding feast, and we see among the motley throng 
of guests a man which hath not on a wedding gar- 
ment. Scarcely has the eye rested upon him, and 
the mind shrewdly conjectured that the impudent 
villain is to play a prominent part, when in swaggers 
the king, with the typical stage strut, and demands, 
as we knew he would, how the poor rascal dare ap- 
pear in every-day clothes. And he was speechless. 
Then said the king to the servants, " Bind him hand 
and foot and take him away, and cast him into outer 
darkness." " There shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth," sings the chorus : '^ for many are called, but 
few are chosen." 



214 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Again, the scene opens upon the Rialto, as it were, 
— for Christ always took his stories from the events 
nearest at hand, — and we see the wise householder, 
money-lender, with sharp eyes, driving his last bar- 
gains before setting out upon his vacation trip. He 
doles out money to his hangers-on in safe and judi- 
cious proportions, and, waving his hand, seizes his 
staff and is off. When he comes back at the end of 
the season, he speedily looks to his loans. The 
usurers bring their principal and interest, and count 
it off into his hands. But among them sneaks in 
a miser, — a miserable, disreputable old Jew, bare- 
footed and bareheaded, old and not venerable, mean 
of appearance and character, holding in his dirty 
hand a single talent, the same he had received. The 
banker reproves his meanness, and points a moral. 
" Yes, that 's so," chimes in the chorus. " Cast the 
unprofitable servant into outer darkness ; there shall 
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

The common method of preaching, with some of 
the ideas of Christ as groundwork, is well illustrated 
in the following : — 

" And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one 
casting out devils in thy name, and he did not follow us, and 
we forbade him, because he would not follow us. But Jesus 
said, Forbid him not, for there is no man which shall do a 
miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he 
that is not against us is on our part. For whosoever shall 
give you a cup of cold water to drink in my name, because 
you belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose 
his reward. And whosoever shall offend one of these little 
ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a mill-stone 
were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. 
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off ; it is better for you to 
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, 
into the lire that never shall be quenched, where their worm 



DOGMA. 215 

dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot 
offend thee, cut it off ; it is better for you to enter halt into 
life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that 
never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the 
fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it 
out ; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with 
one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, where 
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 

Quite clearly the writer intended this for a sermon 
on the respect and support due to himself and his 
calling. He naturally waxes warm when he thinks 
of offences committed against his order, maybe 
against himself, and scratches out a pretty plain 
warning. One is reminded of a custom among some 
of the clergy nowadays, who always announce a col- 
lection with the contemptible words, " The Lord lov- 
eth a cheerful giver." It has always been customary 
among the Christians to follow fulsome praise of the 
goodness and mercy of their Lord with vivid descrip- 
tions of his wrath. There is no better proof of the 
proposition that men created gods, rather than gods 
men, than the fact that gods are always magnified 
human beings. The Christian god acts just like a 
human father. He persuades, coaxes, and wheedles 
his children ; and then, when they are obstinate, gets 
angry, grows red in the face, talks loud, stamps his 
foot, and shows the stick. 

Another quotation plainly discloses itself to be a 
garbled and distorted discourse, founded upon the 
Sermon on the Mount, and the story of the rich, 
youth, which, on th.e other hand, on their face bear 
the stamp of authenticity : — 

" Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 
Blessed are ye that hunger now, for you shall be filled. 
Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed 



216 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall sepa- 
rate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast 
out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice 
you in that day, and leap for joy : for, behold, your reward is 
great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers unto 
the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich, for you have 
received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full, for 
you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now, for you shall 
mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all men shall speak 
well of you, for so did their fathers of the false prophets." 

Here is a perfect example of the dogmatism of the 
early saints. They included some simple words or 
ideas of Christ in their sermons, first adapting them 
to suit their own narrow views, and then held the 
whole discourse out to the public as that of Christ. 
Everybody knows that to-day the commentator in 
general is looked upon with a kind of pitying con- 
tempt. How much more contempt ought the ancient 
commentator to bear ! And this particular one was 
a narrow, dogmatic churl. Christ, according to the 
authority of another story, said it was hard for a rich 
man to merit the kingdom of heaven, — not that none 
did, or that any did not ; and this bigot cries uni- 
versal vengeance upon them all, and even upon those 
who are so fortunate as to enjoy sufficient food, and 
those who are cheerful and happy. This is Chris- 
tianity of all times, except, perhaps, that of this 
generation. Eiches, comforts, and pleasures are sin. 
This is an excellent example of Christian dogma ; but 
we find many other instances just as sweeping, and 
expressed in more striking language : — 

" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he 
that believeth not shall be damned." 

" And to you who are in trouble, rest with us, when the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 



DOGMA. 217 

angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from 
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." 

" And for this cause God shall send them strong delu- 
sion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be 
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in 
unrighteousness. " 

" He that believeth on him is not condemned ; but he that 
believeth not is condemned already, because he has not be- 
lieved on the only begotten Son of God." 

" And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not 
hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." 

" If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother 
and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his 
own life also, he cannot be my disciple." 

Tidings of joy, indeed ! No wonder it raised the ex- 
clamation to the lips of one whose whole soul revolted 
at the idea of sucli cruel, godless, hellish malice and 
hate. But the greatest good news, the best tidings of 
joy, is to be found in Eevelation, — God's promise to 
the faithful revealed to his sainted vessel. There 
will be some joyful spectacles for the delectation of 
saints : — 

" And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of 
the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they 
gnawed their tongues for pain." 

" And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, 
and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire." 

" And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet 
that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived 
them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that 
worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake 
of fire burning with brimstone." 

" And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." 

" But the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and mur- 
derers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all 



218 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire 
and brimstone." 

To cap the climax, the sainted writer, prophetic 
priest, has given us a little kindly warning : — 

" For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of 
the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in 
this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of 
the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of 
the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things 
which are written in this book." 

Fitting end to tlie concluding book of the new 
dispensation ! Glorious and sufficient commentary 
on the bigoted, dogmatic, and fanatical side of Chris- 
tianity ! 

The story for several centuries later is broken and 
in a great degree unintelligible. All that can safely be 
said is that the system was slowly but surely gaining 
strength, rarely losing ground once gone over. This 
must have been an active period for the new faith, 
otherwise it is impossible to account for the unprece- 
dented authority, temporal as well as spiritual, of which 
we find the Church possessed in the Middle Ages. The 
seed was being sown in that part of Europe which 
is now France, Germany, and Austria, which was 
later to spring up and yield a rich harvest. Even to 
England and Ireland did the zealous Christians pene- 
trate, and they were well received and repaid for their 
labor. 

These Teutonic barbarians possessed a good deal of 
common-sense, too, for we learn that the Council of 
Whitby, which was called to settle a dispute over the 
time for holding a mere ceremony, was opened with 
the sagacious explanation of its purpose, that as they 



DOGMA. 219 

all expected the same kingdom of heaven, they ought 
not to differ in the celebration of the divine mysteries. 
And in deciding the quarrel, according to the Vener- 
able Bede, the crafty king showed as much sense of 
a kind as he did in stating the desirability of a settle- 
ment. When it was suggested by the Eoman party 
that Saint Peter had the keys to heaven, he cj^uickly 
reached his conclusion : " He being the doorkeeper, 
I will in all things obey his decrees, lest when I come 
to the gates of the kingdom of heaven there be none 
to open them." Not always was so much discretion 
shown by the barbarians. Little real reason or judg- 
ment controlled these conversions. They merely sub- 
stituted one superstition for another; for, even if 
true, Christianity was still a superstition to their un- 
tutored minds, which embraced the Christian god only 
because he seemed to give them victory which their 
own denied, or because he seemed to grant a protec- 
tion which their own withheld. 

These simple, ignorant worshippers furnished ex- 
cellent material for the more crafty and subtle 
Roman priests to work upon in succeeding centuries. 
It is true, indeed, that the Church made herself a 
child to prattle with her children, the simple Teu- 
tons, and to lisp the pretty legend in their willing 
ears. Says Guizot : " To dazzle the senses of the bar- 
barians and work upon their imagination, she in- 
creased wonderfully the number, pomp, and variety 
of her religious ceremonies. She converted them by 
grand spectacles." 

Before we pass to the events of the Middle Ages, 
it may be well to consider a moment one other estab- 
lishment of early Christianity, — an institution which 
has been a curse in many ways to civilization, but 
which, like all other evils, has been a source of many 



220 CHKIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

great benefits. I refer to the institution of Monasti- 
cism. The natural and immediate result of one of the 
most important teachings of Christianity, it spread 
like wildfire wherever practised. At all times, from 
the third century down through the Middle Ages, we 
find a horde of Christian paupers dragging at the 
skirts of civilization and clogging the onward march 
of human progress. The practice was known long 
before Christianity, but was never before so wide- 
spread. The number of hermits in a great portion 
of Egypt equalled the population of the cities, accord- 
ing to the eminent historian, Lecky. The fanatic is 
the natural companion of the bigot. Intolerance, bigo- 
try, and fanaticism are all stem of the same root. 

These poor, miserable hermits abandoned their 
families and friends, believing that by such unworthy 
self-denial and cruelty, and by continual self-torture 
and torment, they might win heaven. They dwelt in 
tombs or in wells, in swamps and caves, lying upon 
thorny underbrush or on solid rock in abandoned 
quarries, unwashed, ill-clad, without decent food or 
suitable drink, hating themselves and the world, and 
heartily scorned in turn by all reasonable men. 
Thousands of these worthless paupers swarmed in 
the East, a curse to themselves and to others. Even 
the monks gathered together in the monasteries did 
vastly more harm by their doctrine of passive obedi- 
ence than would suffice to counterbalance the benefits 
which they conferred as teachers and copyists. Prac- 
tically speaking, the whole system, aside from the 
incidental aid and relief it afforded to travellers and 
to the sick who chanced to fall across its path, was a 
complete and ignominious failure, and ultimately a 
curse to civilization. AVith this, we hasten to the 
events of the Middle Ages. 



DOGMA. 221 

First, then, we find tlie Crusades. Beginning with 
the end of the eleventh century, a series of expeditions 
was undertaken by Christian kings at the instigation 
of the clergy, which lasted nearly two centuries, — a 
most bitter and sanguinary conquest, long and con- 
tinuously maintained. The object of these formi- 
dable military expeditions was the rescue of sacred 
Palestine from Mohammedan profanation. These 
stupendous undertakings open up a period of reli- 
gious fanaticism, a period of superstitious religious 
zeal, lasting for centuries, and running down in di- 
rect and uninterrupted sequence to the beginning of 
the present century. 

The very first expedition was the result of the 
crafty and treacherous plans of unscrupulous bishops, 
who cared infinitely more for their own glory than 
for that of their god. Upon deliberation it was de- 
cided to concentrate all the Christian influence upon 
the fiery, warm-hearted, flaxen-haired Franks, because 
it was shrewdly conjectured that they would quickest 
catch the flame. Great preparations were made. 
Councils were called, and the question was well aired. 
Finally, a fiery, courageous monk lighted the torch 
and roused thousands of hearers by his fierce invective, 
his piteous groans and sobs, his piercing shrieks and 
doleful howls, to the highest pitch of excitement, so 
that they returned sob for sob, shriek for shriek, and 
declared themselves ready to go anywhere or do any- 
thing, if it were only pointed out. And the occasion 
did not want for one to make the most of it. The 
Pope himself was there to seize the opportunity. He 
declared that the Christian Church had placed its 
hope in their courage, that God would give them vic- 
tory and reward them with mauifold returns. When 
the frenzy of the throng was all but uncontrollable, 
concluding, he said : — 



222 CHEIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

" If you must have blood, bathe your hands in the blood of 
infidels. I speak to you with harshness, because my ministry 
obliges me to do so; soldiers of hell, become soldiers of the 
living God ! When Jesus Christ summons you to his defence, 
let no base affection detain you in your homes. See nothing 
but the shame and evils of the Christians, listen to nothins: 
but the groans of Jerusalem, and remember well what the 
Lord has said to you : ' He that loves his father and his mother 
more than me is not worthy of me : whoever will abandon his 
house, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his children, 
or his inheritance, for the sake of my name, shall be recom- 
pensed a hundred-fold, and possess life eternal.' " 

The cursed expedition started, with signs from 
heaven and prodigies. The graves gave up their dead, 
and saints and martyrs long buried appeared once 
more on earth. 

A great pyramid of bones told the fate of one divi- 
sion ; and Peter the Hermit, either the prime instigator 
or the innocent tool of unscrupulous men, turns up 
cursing as brigands and cutthroats the very band he 
had worked so hard to collect. The other division was 
victorious, capturing Jerusalem itself and putting to 
death in cold blood, in slaughter lasting seven days, 
thousands upon thousands of human beings. We 
again find Peter the Hermit, this time praising God 
for victory ! 

But it is not to the purpose to follow these events 
in detail. The later Crusades were like the first. 
History relates many sad tales, but none sadder and 
withal more instructive than the lamentable story of 
the Crusades. Affecting indeed is the piteous appeal 
for justice of the poor men, whose only fault was their 
credulity, who had given their all for their god, and 
now sought his aid and mercy ; lamentable their 
awakening to the deception and the uselessness of 



DOGMA. 223 

prayer. A thousand times more affecting is the fate 
of that great band of little children, weary and foot- 
sore from an endless journey that had been promised 
but for a day. The Children's Crusade is the saddest 
event in human history. 

Never before had the world been so drenched in 
blood, never were such cruelties of more than barbaric 
ferocity committed, never were life and property so 
uncertpJn and of such little value. The untutored 
people of western Europe were simply crazed by the 
priesthood, and fairly lost all judgment and reason in 
the single thought of redeeming the honor and glory 
of their god. Ignorant minds, worked upon by crafty 
and designing men, soon became mere tools. The re- 
ligious excitement of the rough, hardy men of these 
ages was so great as to induce a constant state of 
ferment. The very atmosphere seemed tainted and 
heavy, and to carry infection and contagion. Europe 
was visited with a general epidemic, a species of 
human rabies. Bj day men stood in the fields almost 
in stupor, buried in religious emotion, unmindful of 
work or pleasure, and dull with sense of guilt ; they 
crept off alone to ponder over the words of their 
priests ; by night they lay awake thinking of their 
sin. Such intense feeling must have an outlet, or it 
will develop into general madness. I seriously ques- 
tion whether the Crusades themselves were not the 
direct result of literal, temporary insanity and mad- 
ness on the part of thousands of the participants. 
People were so worked up that they must act or rave. 
Fortunate was it that such an opening was found to 
relieve the mental pressure ; and this fearful state 
was brought about by the untiring zeal of a few igno- 
rant, uncompromising, dogmatic priests, who were as 
utterly incapable of controlling the frenzy and guiding 



224 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

the expedition in which it culminated, as they were 
irresponsible and reckless in their methods of creating 
such excitement, and unscrupulous and treacherous in 
their desertion from the cause once fairly undertaken. 

Another result of dogmatism, indirect, if not direct, 
was the utterly worthless and contemptible discus- 
sions and learning of the schoolmen. The statement 
at first sight may seem far-fetched; but had the 
schoolmen not been bound up in their dogmatic ideas 
of God, and thoroughly persuaded of the certainty 
and reality of their peculiar fundamental doctrines, 
they could never have drifted off into such a senseless 
tangle of absurdities. Had they not simply accepted 
the theological views of the Church, they would never 
have attempted to investigate the side subtleties of 
metaphysical reasoning on them. Had they ques- 
tioned the ver}^ existence of augels, they would never 
have asked how many could sit on the head of a pin, 
if, indeed, they had lived long enough fairly to put 
the question. If they had sought to prove that the 
bread and wine of service were the real flesh and 
blood of Christ, they would never have discussed the 
nature and necessity of the change. But they were 
too bigoted to doubt the reality of the things which 
they discussed, and so intolerant were they that it 
would have gone hard with any that had dared to 
suggest a doubt to them. As hinted above, they them- 
selves even might not have lived long enough to put 
the question. 

Taking another step, we come to the persecution of 
the Albigenses. The Crusades looked after infidel 
and heathen, now it is the heretics' turn to suffer. 
Innocent III. receives a command from his god to 
eradicate heresy ; the command, it is supposed, being 
accompanied with a definition of the word " heresy.'' 



DOGMA. 225 

This defiintion includes the poor Albigenses, and so 
they have to suffer. An innocent, peaceful, and in- 
dustrious people are literally swept out of existence, 
and a quiet, fruitful land devastated. Said a noble offi- 
cer, in reply to a question as to how heretics were to 
be distinguished from the faithful : '' Kill them all ; 
the Lord wdll know his own." And all were killed. 

Heresy must be kept down : this is the command ; 
and a novel device was hit upon to accomplish the 
desired result, — the Inquisition, an invention w^hich. 
it must be admitted well served its purpose for sev- 
eral centuries. Queen Isabella did her duty as best 
she could, and hers is the reward. " In the love of 
Christ and his Maid Mother, I have caused great 
misery. I have depopulated towns and districts, 
provinces and kingdoms." And who will say this 
is not the command of Christianity ? If any re- 
proach is to be laid at the door of dogma, it can 
only be a reproach for having done its duty, and 
having done it well. Its victims are simply innu- 
merable ; its horrors can only be imagined, if, indeed, 
the imagination of this century can picture such cru- 
elties. One who has not actually seen the instru- 
ments of torture in daily use at this time cannot even 
imagine the awful persecution. Words scarcely have 
any meaning when applied to this scourge. The rack, 
the thumbscrew, stocks, caschilaws, lang irons, the 
boot, pinniwinkles, iron gauntlets, and the Skeving- 
ton's daughter are all terms that suggest little if any 
meaning to the modern mind ; and still these fearful 
practices were all in the name of Christianity, and 
were actually going on little more than three centu- 
ries ago. This was for the sake of Christ, who be- 
sought men to be like little children, and whose only 
dogma was love. 

15 



226 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The Jesuits, perhaps, developed the Inquisition to 
the highest pitch of refinement and efhcacy. Refer- 
ence has been made to them in the opening chapter, 
and further remarks are not necessary here. This is 
a Christian institution which has cast a reproach upon 
mankind. When men of to-day wish to denounce an 
intolerant and bigoted person, when they seek to ap- 
ply an epithet that will sting and cut, and to cast a 
reproach that will rankle, they call him a Jesuit. 

St. Ba'rtholomew's Day marks another stage in dog- 
matism. An unprincipled and dissolute courtesan Avas 
without doubt the prime instigator of this horrible 
deed, and yet she merely played into the hands of the 
Church ; and the deed was hailed with delight by 
the Church at Rome, at that time undoubtedly the 
prevailing expression of Christianity. It is one of 
those peculiar facts frequent in history, that the 
Protestants of England and elsewhere stood horrified 
at this massacre, and denounced it in unsparing terms 
as soon as they realized its enormity, even declaring 
that it was the most horrible crime that had been per- 
petrated since the crucifixion of Christ. Yet a little 
while, and we find these same Protestants just as in- 
tolerant, just as bigoted, just as cruel. It makes a won- 
derful difference in these questions whose ox is gored. 

Protestantism was at this time but in its infancy. 
The Protestants in Scotland, only a little later, prac- 
tised just as cruel tortures as the Catholics ever did. 
In Scotland they burned witches and heretics, put 
them to the rack and tortured them to death ; yes, 
that disgrace of Christian witch-burning attaches it- 
self even to this land of liberty. The Church teaches 
love and justice, we say. It is true ; but it also teaches 
crime and cruelty. It sets an example of love ; but 
its example of hate is a hundredfold more striking. 



DOGMA. 227 

It teaches humility ; is it humble ? It teaches love ; 
is it charitable ? On the contrary, it is but too often 
proud of its past, Roman and Protestant alike, proud 
of its bigotry, proud of its persecution. Neither sect 
seeks to atone for its errors ; each seeks rather to con- 
ceal them, and at times openly parades its intolerance. 
The crimes perpetrated by the Scotch kirk fully equal 
in atrocity, if not in number, those perpetrated in any 
quarter by the Roman church. The intolerance and 
pride and bigotry of the one sect is fully as great as 
that of the other. We may well read some of the 
sentiments of these Scotch bigots. I take them at 
random as they fall to my hands. 

" Suspect that which pleaseth the senses. . . . He that is 
full and hath enough to make him fuller, will easily deny God 
and be exalted against him ; his table shall be a snare to his 
body and a snare to his soul. ... If God loved riches well, do 
you think he would give them so liberally and heap them upon 
some base covetous wretch. . . . The world is a dang-erous things 
and a great evil, and the comforts of it a hell. . . , Have you 
not been glad when the Lord's day was over, or, at least, when 
the preaching was done, that ye might get your liberty ? Has 
it not been a burden to you to sit so long in the church ? Well, 
this is a great sin. . . . Men are naturally more brutish than 
beasts themselves. . . . There is nothing in the world so mon- 
strous, so deformed, as man. . . . Infants in their mother's 
belly have in themselves sufficient guilt to deserve to be ript 
up. . . . The lilies and roses ... no doubt had more sweet- 
ness of beauty and smell before the sin of men made them van- 
ity sick. . . . The heavens that are supposed to be incorruptible, 
yet they wax old as doth a garment. . . . Christ did never laugh 
on earth that we read of, but he wept. . . . Every act of breath- 
ing is sin and hell. . . . There are two thousand of you here 
to-day ; but I am sure fourscore of you will not be saved. . . . 
Oh, the screeches and yells there will be in hell. . . . See the 
poor wretches lying in bundles, boiling eternally in that stream 
of brimstone." 



228 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

So much for dogmatism in the past. The examples 
given form as small a portion of the whole as a drop 
of water is of the ocean. Keligious intolerance is 
more harmful than other, because its victories, almost 
innumerable, surpass those of any other persecution. 
And yet, great as is the known number of crimes and 
outrages, the unknown must be far greater. No one 
knows and no one ever will know the secret crimes of 
religious persecution. We hear of public massacres 
and open tortures ; but we learn little of that great 
band who suffered in secret. Still less do we know 
of those who from fear and threat of like fate have 
concealed their inner lives, — have assumed a faith, but 
lived a lie. The practice of hypocrisy is the greatest 
evil result of intolerance. Under the ban of bigotry 
whole nations mask their faces and live in deceit. 
Hypocrisy and fraud become necessary, if peace 
and profit are sought ; and religious insincerity is 
universal. 

We come now down to our own century and our 
own times. Massacres and tortures are not to be 
found. The intolerant spirit is now confined to 
creeds and attitudes. During the first half of this 
century Calvinism was preached throughout the 
length of the United States and in the mother 
country. There are four principal doctrines in 
Calvinism : good works amount to nothing ; faith 
is everything and to be valued according to its 
strength ; reason has no place in religious affairs ; 
God from the first foreordained certain persons to 
salvation and predestined certain others to damna- 
tion, and this determination cannot be affected by the 
conduct of the individual. 

The horrors preached from the pulpit equalled any 
that ever obtained a hearing in Scotland. The music 



DOGMA. 229 

sung was in many instances -mournful in the extreme. 
Audiences were so worked upon by the clergy that 
many were overcome and fell to the ground groaning 
and raving. Such meetings were called spiritual, and 
a minister's power and virtue were measured by this 
kind of resultant spirituality. Scenes of this descrip- 
tion are not unheard of now. Places may still be 
found where occasionally such frenzy is created to 
this very day. The music employed in these ser- 
vices went far to arouse the feelings manifested. 
Music has always played an important part in re- 
ligious ceremonies of all ages. Revivalists well un- 
derstand its power, and make judicious selections. 
The success obtained by the revivalist Moody, a few 
years ago, was due quite as much to the songs of 
Sankey as to the harangues of the leader, who 
reaped most of the applause. One of the most 
popular songs, and one that most elderly persons 
will recall, was this, sung to an appropriately dole- 
ful tune : — 

" Parents and children there shall part, 
Parents and children there shall part, 
Parents and children there shall part, — 
Shall part to meet to more. 
Oh, there '11 he mourning, mourning, mourning, 
Oh, there '11 be mourning at the judgment-seat of Christ ! " 

There is not room in a short chapter like this to in- 
sert many creeds, and perhaps it would only be tire- 
some reading if there were room. One illustration is 
sufficient : ^ — 

" By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, 
some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, 
and others foreordained to everlasting death. 

^ Taken from the Presbyterian creed now in use. 



230 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

" These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreor- 
dained, are particularly and unchangeably designed ; and their 
number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either in- 
creased or diminished. 

" Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life God, 
before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his 
eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and 
good pleasure of his will, hath chosen, in Christ, unto everlast- 
ing glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any 
foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of 
them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or 
causes moving him thereunto ; and all to the praise of his 
glorious grace. 

" The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the 
unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or 
withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sover- 
eign power over his creatures, to pass by and to ordain them 
to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glo- 
rious justice." 

It was a great surprise to me to find what I did in 
carefully reading over some of the doctrinal creeds now 
in use. The truth is, in worship or subscription we 
hastily glance over these creeds, each his own, without 
thinking of their meaning. The same thing is true, 
though to a less extent, in the popular reading of news- 
papers. Hundreds of people read a morning paper 
regularly, and yet are utterly unable without painful 
reflection to mention a single thing they read. Un- 
less actual experiments are tried, one cannot realize 
how little words really mean after all. A perfect 
sample of modern creeds may be given, than Avhich 
a better could scarcely be found, though some con- 
tain sentiments more hateful : — 

" I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven 
and earth : And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord '. Who 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, 



DOGMA. 231 

suffered under Pontius Pilate ; Was crucified, dead, and buried ; 
He descended into hell, the third day he rose from the dead ; 
He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God 
the Father Almighty ; From thence he shall come to judge the 
quick and the dead. 

'• I believe in the Holy Ghost; The Holy Catholic Church; 
The Communion of Saints ; The Forgiveness of sins ; The 
Resurrection of the Body ; And the Life everlasting. Amen." 

Such senseless gibberish as this is hurriedly, yet 
soberly, mumbled over every Sunday by the richest 
Protestant sect in Christendom. It is senseless for 
t^vo reasons, — literally, because unintelligible ; prac- 
tically, because scarcely one of those who regularly 
repeat it really knows or cares what he is saying, and 
no one believes it. It is simply a meaningless form, 
gone through because aristocratic and fashionable. 
These may seem harsh words to some ; but few on 
sober reflection will deny their truth. These people 
kneel and pray in open church and in full vieAv, osten- 
tatiously conspicuous. If there is a veritable dies irae, 
a day of reckoning such as you pretend to believe in, and 
if the standard of judgment and chances of acquittal 
at that awful tribunal are such as you preach, God 
help you ! — that is all I say. I am not angry with 
you, — no, I have not the heart to be angry ; I only 
pity you. 

The unseemly quarrels in the American Board are 
well known, as well as the stormy scenes over Presby- 
terian revision. The Covell case is a fair sample of 
modern dogma. The treatment which this deserving 
young man received at the hands of a great and 
wealthy Christian organization is a disgrace to our 
century. The fact that permission is denied an hon- 
est, open-minded, and educated man to preach to 
heathen under any creed because he cannot think 



232 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

them damned in their primitive state, is a lamentable 
revelation of the dogmatism of our times. Another 
instance may be mentioned where a noted Episcopal 
rector of evolutional tendencies was compelled to 
choose between an ecclesiastical trial and obedience 
to the command of the bishop of his diocese to stop 
preaching evolution. Five members of the Presby- 
terian faith were suspended recently in one diocese 
for heresy ; and the MacQueary trial in the Episcopal 
Church is familiar to all. Thus Christ's seamless 
coat is rent in pieces, and the sects fight over the 
spoils. This recalls another case, in which we have 
the example of a noted English priest being denied 
recognition by his brother sectarians in at least two 
New England States ; and the strangest incident about 
this little affair was the humble petition of the re- 
jected priest for permission to preach in a Unitarian 
church whose doors were throwm open to him. If 
this had been intended as a bit of sarcasm, it would 
have been masterly ; but it seems to have been in 
simple honesty, which makes the act all the more ex- 
traordinary. Here is the spectacle of a man ostensi- 
bly sent by God to preach his word, pausing on the 
threshold of a great opportunity, voluntarily offered, 
to ask an earthly bishop if he may enter and preach, 
as if there were pollution in a Unitarian church, or 
as if the light of truth could shine only from an Epis- 
copal pulpit ! 

Pastors of different denominations rarely exchange 
pulpits, though the practice is common among those 
of the same creed. A union service was held recently 
in a great Episcopal church in New York, and it was 
soon afterwards reported that the clergyman who per- 
mitted the representatives of other sects to use his 
pulpit was to be disciplined. There is an old saying 



DOGMA. 233 

that the Christian churches are rival camps, in which 
salvation is offered to the initiated, and damnation to 
all the rest. The saying is not altogether inapplicable 
to the church of to-day. The different sects display 
a rivalry at times very much like enmity. If each 
does not preach damnation to all the rest, still hate- 
ful insinuation is very common ; and it may be a 
question whether concealed hatred is not full worse 
than open defiance. In New York recently the well- 
known pastors of two great Protestant churches pub- 
licly agreed to exchange pulpits, amidst the vocifer- 
ous applause of a large audience. The exchange was 
brought about by a statement of one of the preachers, 
in the course of his address, to the effect that while in 
Scotland he had frequently made such exchanges, in 
this country he had never done so. 

A new United States war-vessel was not long ago 
christened in the usual and traditional way. At the 
launching the granddaughter of the Secretary of the 
Navy broke a bottle of wine over the vessel's bow, 
with the words : " I baptize thee Maine." Consider- 
able comment was occasioned by the use of the word 
" baptize " in such a connection. Letters of protest 
were sent to the papers, adverse remarks were com- 
mon, and that ominous word " blasphemy " was heard. 
One writer, less silly somewhat than others, said that 
if another word had been used, the young lady Avould 
have avoided an expression which she " certainly did 
not mean as blasphemous, but which is doubtless 
open to grave objections." The incident is simple 
in itself; but such little things indicate that bigotry 
and superstition are not utterly extinct. Again, who 
but a bigot would think of an elaborate and com- 
plete purification — ceremonial, traditional, pompous 
— of a great church edifice, rendered necessary be- 



234 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

cause a suicide had been committed within its holy 
precincts ? 

An influential religious newspaper publishes the 
statements of a divine regarding future probation. 
He says he thinks the Scriptures give no foundation 
for such a theory ; Saint Peter does not lay a basis 
for the theory ; the hypothesis, to his mind, is extra- 
Scriptural, but not anti-Scriptural ; he sees plausible 
arguments for the theory, but also many against it. 
The world ought to have this late-learned dunce's 
opinion as to whether angels have stomachs, or 
whether the Virgin Mary remained a virgin after 
conception. 

Reference has already been made to a litigation be- 
tween the factions of churches, and a quotation given 
from the decision of the court in one case. But the 
factions of that church did not go to the extremes 
actually reached in a later case. A society became 
divided, and one clique withdrew and erected a new 
edifice. It seems that one of the members of the new 
society, who still clung in her heart to the old church, 
died, and on her deathbed desired her burial rites to 
be celebrated in the old church. When the funeral 
cortege arrived at the church, the officiating clergyman 
was denied admission, and the services were actually 
held in the open air, in a heavy, driving snow-storm. 

There is but one other instance that I will mention 
in this connection, and in a sense I am sorry to in- 
sert it ; but I am seeking the truth, and this is why I 
add a disgraceful scene that none can more sincerely 
regret. 

" Flemingsburg, Ky., Jan. 9. The Methodist, Baptist, 
and Presbyterian churches of this place decided to observe 
the week of prayer in a series of union meetings. The third 
meetins; of the series was held at the Methodist Church Tues- 



DOGMA. 235 

day night. A very large congregation was present, and after 
short addresses by the pastors a prayer-meeting was held. 
During the progress of this service Rev. Mr. Hughes, pastor 
of the Presbyterian Church, was called on to pray. In the 
course of his invocation he introduced the articles of the faith 
of his church. lie was interrupted by the Baptist minister, 
and, on their knees, the two preachers fought over the doc- 
trines of their respective churches, while the congregation, in 
confusion, rose to its feet and crowded about the two dispu- 
tants, who bombarded each other with Bible quotations, de- 
nominational arguments, and sharp retort. The audience was 
becoming noisy ; there were indications of more serious trouble, 
which might have ended in blows, if nothing worse, when the 
Methodist pastor took the pulpit, denounced the proceedings 
as a disgrace to the place, the occasion, and the religion all 
present professed, and ordering the congregation out, declared 
be would not permit such shameful scenes in his church. 
No service was held last night in any of the churches. The 
congregations of the two disputing preachers stand by their 
respective pastors, while those on the outside are wonder- 
ing if the church-members of Flemingsburg don't need to be 
converted." 

I do not care to comment on this scene ; it speaks 
for itself. 

The Christian Church, all over the land, is forever 
on the lookout lest the museums and art collections 
in some way open their doors, though a few such 
have boldly done so. The running of horse-cars and 
Sunday trains is strongly objected to, and even the 
delivery of mails in some places. As if this were 
not enough, an attempt is made to control the very 
elements themselves ; for a movement was not long 
ago instituted to prevent the arrival of transatlantic 
steamships Sundays. 

There is one other great example of modern intol- 
erance that deserves mention, and that is the obloquy 
that is cast upon the liberal-minded. Free-thinkers 



236 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

are tlie modern heretics. Generally speaking, no epi- 
thet can be too opprobrious or vile as applied to them, 
and any and every opportunity to abuse and calumni- 
ate such men is eagerly seized. It has come to light 
that when Charles Bradlaugh, a member of Parliament 
and famous for his philanthropy, was on his deathbed, 
his house was literally flooded with tracts from sects 
of all kinds, in which he was assured that he could 
escape eternal damnation only by the acceptance of 
Christianity of the various creeds. Again, when a 
statue of Lessing was recently unveiled in Berlin, the 
clergy refused to take part in the ceremonies or to 
appear at all, because they disapproved of his teach- 
ings and his life. This is a kind of bigotry that is 
utterly contemptible, and yet one which is as common 
as day. Hume and Paine, Voltaire and Renan, Stuart 
Mill and Huxley, Emerson and Ingersoll, have all had 
their turn at this disgraceful Christian abuse. All 
these men, with the partial exception of Emerson, 
have been deemed the very incarnation of the devil 
on earth, and are quite too commonly so rated at 
present. Not even the bones of those that are dead 
have been respected ; and their graves are pointed at 
with derision, scorn, and contempt. Similar vitupera- 
tion is daily heard and read by the two still living, 
and thousands would receive with pious joy tidings of 
misfortune or calamity happening to either. 

The burden of orthodox Christianity is simply this : 
Life without a belief in some established orthodox 
form of Christianity is death. One of the greatest 
preachers of this country and of the world, so con- 
sidered, commonly and publicly insists that a life 
without Christianity is a life of misery. To be with- 
out the hopes and blessings of Christianity is to be 
wretched, — this is the burden of his religious teach- 



DOGMA. 237 

ing. I never heard him preach without stating this 
theory in one way or another, though I do not attend his 
church or hear him very often. If the word "Chris- 
tianity " as used means the Episcopal interpretation 
of it, I am sure the statement is absurdly incorrect ; 
for such a statement could not be made with cer- 
tainty by any man, since it would involve universal 
experience, which can hardly be credited to the 
divine in question. Moreover examples to the con- 
trary are notoriously frequent, if we may trust our 
observation, than which we have no other guide to 
detect misery or its opposite. I fear that there are 
few of us who do not say foolish things at times, and 
one who has a great purpose at heart becomes to an ex- 
tent an enthusiast. To his mind many things become 
magnified, and exaggeration naturally follows. This 
little incident is mentioned, not to display a fault 
in a great character, but to illustrate a form of 
dogmatism. 

Such has been the prevailing tone of Christianity. 
Who can distinguish between the voice of the holy 
prophet of God himself, or the exultation of the 
apostolical father, and the word picture of the great 
American theologian ? 

« If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive 
his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink 
of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without 
mixture into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be 
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy 
angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of 
their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have 
no rest day or night who worship the beast or his image, and 
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." 

" How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, 
when I behold so many proud monarchs, so many fancied 
gods, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many 



238 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in 
fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians ; so 
many sage philosophers, blushing in red-hot flames with their 
deluded scholars; so many celebrated poets, trembling before 
the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ ; so many tragedians 
more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings ; so 
many dancers more agile than ever in the flames ; so many 
charioteers all aglow in flaming chariots ; so many athletes 
practising, not in the gymnasia, but in hell-fire.'' 

" How awful are those words, Isa. Ixiii. 3, which are the 
words of the grreat God: ' I will tread them in mine anger, and 
stamp them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled 
upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.' It is 
perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them 
greater manifestations of these three things, viz., contempt, and 
hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to 
pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful 
case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of 
that he will only tread you under foot : and though he will 
know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading 
upon vou, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you 
under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood 
and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so 
as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he 
will have you in the utmost contempt ; no place shall be 
thought fit for you but under his feet, to be trodden down as 
mire in the streets." 

Who would imagine that these writings are fifteen 
centuries apart ? Who would think that the Ameri- 
can Board, in consigning heathen irrevocably and 
eternally to the bottomless pit of hell, live two 
thousand years after Tertullian or Saint John ? A 
man who, living in the present age, enjoying the 
enlightenment and blessings of these times, will yet 
solemnly consign his fellow-men to an eternal hell 
of lasting torment, simply because they have never 
heard the word of God, or because they do not 



DOGMA. 239 

believe certain things related in the Bible, even grant- 
ing that they be true, may write nice sermons and 
such like, but, God lielp him, at bottom he is a poor 
wretch. I think we shall find something that Christ 
said applicable to just such men and such measures : 

" Woe unto }-ou, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for you 
shut up the kingdom of lieaven against men : for you neither 
go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to 
go in. AVoe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
you devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
prayer : therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. 
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for you 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is 
made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than 
yourselves." 

What shall we say of all this crime and cruelty 
perpetrated in the name of him who taught only love 
and peace ? If we look into Christianity from this 
standpoint of narrowness and intolerance only, we can 
see no hope. It would seem as if only tragedy and 
crime could satisfy the heavy-clouded mind of man. 
Sacrifice and blood alone seem to attract the sombre- 
minded worshipper. Even in joyful moments the 
pleasure appears awfully grim and bloody. The idea 
of salvation through the blood of another is a dark 
and painful reflection. Men seem forever selfish ; 
the}^ look to their own miserable salvation. " Shall 
I be damned ? " and " Shall I be saved ? " would seem 
very monotonous and ungenerous questions to be al- 
ways and forever reiterating. But one conclusion 
can follow on this line of investigation. If this were 
the only side of Christian faith, the result would be 
easy to conjecture. The sole answer to the questions 
is plain : " You will not be saved ; you will be . 



240 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

damned." It may not be in the literal and Christian 
sense ; but still life will be lost, its thousand enjoy- 
ments untasted, its manifold duties slighted, its in- 
numerable opportunities neglected^ its happiness wil- 
fully perverted, its value self-depreciated, its blessings 
self-denied. 

But there is great hope from the past. The ages 
have progressed slowly but surely. The cloud, dark 
it is true, yet has a silver lining. We are rapidly 
gaining a proper attitude on questions of this nature. 
E-eligion has not enjoyed the advantages of that rea- 
sonable investigation and calm consideration which 
have been applied to the other affairs of life. If the 
sciences had been regulated for twenty centuries by 
an ecumenical synod of ecclesiastics, and if every in- 
dividual investigator had been compelled to conduct 
his observations under rule established by their au- 
thority, science would reveal to-day just about the 
progress that religion discloses. Attempt was made 
to regulate science in just this way, and, indeed, it 
was practically successful for several centuries ; but 
finally men said, " You must not, you shall not, you 
cannot, clog our material progress in this way ; " and 
so they have been permitted to go on with little effec- 
tive interruption, though protest upon protest has 
been made at every single step of scientific progress. 

In truth, we are in a much better condition as re- 
gards dogmatic religion than we seem. True, the 
dogmatism in our creeds is astonishing ; granted, the 
intolerance in the sermons we hear is excessive ; ad- 
mitted, the clergy and a few deacons are quite apt to 
get a little excited over disputed points of dogmatic 
theology ; still, the great fact must be confessed that 
the people, and hundreds of the best informed and 
most progressive of the clergy, care absolutely noth- 



DOGMA. 241 

ing about the old, narrow doctrines and isms, and the 
only way they yield to them at all is as mere forms. 
This is not the best state that we could be in, but 
it is an advance, and a sure indication of further 
progress. 

It is too much to expect that we shall have no more 
religious dogmatism in the future. As long as men 
are men they will hold decided opinions in religious 
as well as in other matters. It is perhaps well that 
this is so ; certainly, I would be the last to advocate 
unanimity of opinion and action in any field. But 
men are not likely for some few years to burn and 
persecute others for mere theological doctrine. The 
years have taught great wisdom in their exposure of 
human ignorance. Men are not likely to assert that 
all truth on any point is fully known and understood. 
It will be admitted that perhaps there are a few 
things concerning which we have yet to learn, pos- 
sibly some that we may never learn. 

In the future, then, we may expect a somewhat dif- 
ferent line of action. Attempt will not often be made 
to dragoon people into heaven, and there will be still 
less quarrelling over the manifold roads to hell. Aban- 
doning the project of establishing an eternal king- 
dom of God by force, greater efforts will be made to 
develop characters of uprightness and lives of virtue 
here on earth. This is the great work of the future, 
until another ^neas shall leave the sack of Troy for 
a new home and country, or another Mayflower leave 
a land of persecution for a land of freedom, though a 
desert. Progress will be accomplished, as in the past, 
by the diffusion of knowledge. The school is the 
power of to-day. 

" Lust and avarice and anger creep 
In the black jungles of man's ignorance." 
16 



242 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

With, the progress of civilization, the diffusion of 
knowledge, and its attendant broadening of intellect, 
it will be better understood that various conditions 
of life cause various religious, opinions ; that a given 
creed may be good for one people while at the same 
time decidedly bad for another. Finally, people will 
be less ready to interfere with the convictions of 
others, and more willing to examine their own lives, 
purify their own hearts, control their own passions, 
and conquer this evil spirit of intolerance which 
underlies all such controversy. Understanding that 
often the most vigorous and persistent courses of 
action are the result of causes not comprehended, 
and generally little studied and questioned, the utter 
uselessness and impotence of attempts to resist the 
onward flow of civilization will be much clearer to 
future generations. 

History shows that Christianity has suffered much 
more as a moral faith by alliance with power than by 
its opposition ; and it may be said that it stands in 
greater danger of losing its prestige and its influence 
in the future on account of increasing wealth and 
power than of meeting its fate because of the deser- 
tion of the multitudes and the cessation of its enor- 
mous revenues. There is a fruitful similarity between 
those who hope and strive for the unlimited sway of 
Christianity and those who in derision thrust upon 
Christ the mock title and honor of king. The kiss 
of Judas is not the only betrayal ever practised. 

Our appreciation of these things modifies our opin- 
ion of the past, and teaches a superior method of 
judgment. In summing up the character and influ- 
ence of these uncompromising men, the question 
which reveals the key to the whole situation is, not 
where or what they were, but whither were they 



DOGMA. 243 

going. Were their eyes steadily fixed to the front ? 
Were their exertions calculated to hasten or to hin- 
der the march of progress ? In seeking this informa- 
tion, and in reaching favorable conclusions, we do no 
kindness to the past, offer no gallantry, pay no hom- 
age. This is the order of Nature herself. First the 
plant, then the withering flower, and then the fruit. 
To complain of the first century because it is not the 
fifteenth, or of the fifteenth because it is not the 
nineteenth, is the height of absurdity, and reveals a 
shallow mind. The average man of the present prob- 
ably knows more really serviceable knowledge than 
the wisest of the ancients. He can read and write ; 
but in all probability David could do neither, nor 
Homer. He understands practically the law of gravi- 
tation, while Moses and the prophets never dreamed 
of it. He knows a thousand useful appliances and 
ingenious contrivances which were wholly unknown 
to the most gifted of the ancients. But this is not 
the proper way to estimate men and times. Fulton 
was among the first to make use of steam as a pro- 
pelling power ; and we admire his genius for the use- 
ful invention, though we do not care to persist in 
using his boat. We are to judge the past, not by what 
it lacked, but by what it had. 

That those intolerant men had faults, it is useless 
to deny ; but none can gainsay their virtues. Take 
the Puritans, — nobler men are not to be found. The 
increased knowledge that enables us to detect their 
errors may well reveal their virtues. They had the 
manliness to stand up for their convictions, and live 
up to their beliefs, so far as it is given to man ; and 
for this we offer them unfeigned respect. That they 
were radicals is undoubtedly true ; but even this has 
its good results. Their times demanded strictness. 



244 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The laxity of their predecessors and of many of their 
contemporaries was the direct cause of their falling 
into the opposite extreme. Eadicals are unpleasant 
people to deal with ; but they have their place, and 
do their work in the world. Almost, if not quite, 
every great emancipation from moral, intellectual, 
civil, and physical thraldom that has ever been ac- 
complished has been achieved in a great measure by 
the fearless and persistent efforts of a band of radi- 
cals. Every truth over which men become thoroughly 
earnest is likely to be asserted as if no other truth 
existed. In a general way we are none of us wholly 
right, none of us wholly wrong. All of us are at 
once right and wrong. Let us all, then, love and 
cherish the right, and deal kindly with the wrong. 
What might not Christianity accomplish if only it 
relied on charity and not on dogma ? 

There is something very sad in contemplating the 
errors of Christianity. It seems too bad that so much 
of good should be alloyed with so much bad. Those 
hard, uncompromising men, and by no means tender 
and pliant women, who created and practised and pro- 
mulgated those old dogmas and bitter creeds, — what 
purpose have they served ? The evils which they 
sought so earnestly to correct, and in rectifying 
which they deliberately and wilfully stifled many 
virtuous and praiseworthy affections and impulses, 
often appear utterly insignificant to us. The reforms 
which they advocated, and in executing which they 
abandoned reason and common-sense alike, defied 
disgrace and dishonor, and invited hostility, but too 
often appear childish to us. But it must be borne in 
mind that their life was not our life, nor their ways 
our ways. We admire much that they despised ; we 
teach much that they condemned. The early sisters 



DOGMA. 245 

in their love for ornaments and decorations do not 
seem very guilty to us. The men who sought to en- 
joy the comforts of the world and to increase them 
seem guilty of no great crime. The perfection and 
virtue which they sought seem too often but heart- 
lessness and selfishness. What is the purpose, then, 
of all this self-denial and sorrow ? What service did 
those uncompromising heroes render ? If we hold to 
a narrow conception of human life, we can never ap- 
preciate the painful toiling of men. The greatest 
endeavors, the highest hopes, the noblest self-sacri- 
fice, and most heroic toil are quite generally fruitless 
in their direct result. But when we appreciate the 
meaning of duty and conscience, all these efforts ap- 
pear simply sublime. In the moral sphere effort is 
everything; result, little or nothing. Thus, and thus 
alone, can we understand the willing sorrow of saints 
and the self-imposed hardships of martyrs. Now the 
apostle seems grand, and his face seems really to 
shine with the light of heaven, as he stands and 
cries : " Oh, grave, where is thy victory ? Oh, death, 
where is thy sting ? " 

To the wisest men human life and death are very 
broad subjects. Nature is of infinite complexity and 
infinite depth and expansion, altogether too broad for 
present human rules and measures. To use the idea 
of John Wesley, a string of opinions, though thirty- 
nine in number, is no more true religion than a string 
of beads is Christian holiness. Religion is not merely 
assent to any given opinion, or any number of opin- 
ions. Wise and good men have engrafted upon Chris- 
tianity, itself starting with the wisdom and goodness 
of one very great man, the healthful morality for 
which we give it credit. We have made Christianity, 
and Christianity has made us. The evil which it con- 



246 CHRIST ^5. CHRISTIANITY. 

tains is ours as well ; so let us not deal too harshly 
with our own work, though it would be great progress 
if we only could condemn the bad, realizing that it is 
really ours. 

Is it looking too far ahead to expect right living in 
place of orthodoxy, character in place of faith, good 
actions in place of ceremonial worship ? I think 
not. I believe that many have actually reached that 
state, and that more are going to embrace this reli- 
gion of works. To make all men think and act alike 
is nonsense, and it would be a misfortune if it were 
possible ; to act and think aright, each according to 
his own light, is human perfection. I think that of 
Charles V. one of the sagest remarks of all that have 
come down to us. It is said that he tried in vain to 
make a couple of clocks at Yuste run together, and 
gave up the attempt with the reflection : " How fool- 
ish I have been to think I could make all men believe 
alike about religion, when I cannot here make even 
two clocks keep the same time ! " 

While we respect the past for boldly living up to 
the light which it had, may we not so lose ourselves 
in admiration of its manly principles as to forget to 
live up to the light which is given us ? Every creed 
is a stumbling-block in the way of progress. All that 
old persecution and superstition and self-inflicted pen- 
ance is gone now, — gone as if it never were. No one 
believes that we should live as they did. We are 
wiser, perhaps, or more humane ; maybe we are only 
different. Anyway we are in some way separated 
from that old-world Christianity by a chasm that 
cannot be spanned. Let us only realize this fully, 
and act accordingly. Then we shall find, if we have 
not already learned it, that those old creeds are no 
longer of service, and that the old customs are in- 



DOGMA. 247 

appropriate. It is no longer necessary or fashionable 
to place a flaming goMen Bible in the street window. 
The little pocket prayer-book supplants the larger and 
more clumsy volume, and when we come from church 
wo can just slip it under the table. Piety always is 
modest. 

There is little of reproach for the past. But I am 
not so sure of the present. We have duties in pro- 
portion to our opportunities. The past is not the 
measure of the present. Its benefits we may reap 
and treasure up ; its errors we ought to brush aside, 
not contemptuously, but respectfully, remembering 
that they are largely the result of environment. 
When religious faith consists of iron-bound creeds, 
when it includes woful threats to those who fail to 
embrace it, subscription is prudently delayed. Like 
that old Frisian king who, having one foot in the 
baptismal font, drew it back when told that he would 
not meet his noble ancestors in heaven, let us have 
the courage to reject such proffered salvation as long 
as our brother-men suffer in torment. The sorrows 
of wrongdoers will not be a source of pleasure to 
souls elect ; the kingdom of heaven will not be a 
choral society eternally chanting fulsome praises ; 
the heavenly angels will not care for streets of gold 
and silver and precious stones, nor will they live 
a life of idleness ; the kingdom of God is somewhat 
wider and nobler than this, or I will stand outside 
of it. 

As for those of this generation who insist upon 
their petty creeds, withal forever fighting as to what 
they shall be ; as for those who are weary of this 
earth, considering it but a snare aud a temptation, 
and a trial for a glorious, triumphant hereafter, — the 
quicker they are relieved and summoned on high to 



248 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

heavenly seats and thrones the better, leaving those to 
enjoy the world who are sufficiently well pleased with 
it, and do not care enough about heaven to fight for 
distinction and preferment there. For such there is a 
very suggestive old story handed down from ancient 
records. There was once a good king who possessed 
much money and many servants, over which he main- 
tained watchful and thrifty vigilance, so that his 
money increased, and his servants multiplied. Now, 
it happened that one of the servants became indebted 
to his master in a sum which the prudent king had 
little hope of collecting ; and so he ordered him to be 
sold, together with his wife and children and all his 
belongings, thinking to realize more in this than in 
any other way. But the poor wretch begged pite- 
ously for mercy, praying an extension of time and 
offering a renewal of his notes. His tears moved his 
kind-hearted master, who was truly grieved to bring 
sorrow upon a willing debtor and an innocent family ; 
and so he not only recalled the order, but forgave the 
debt. The servant had scarcely left the presence of 
his master, when he happened upon one of his fellow- 
servants who owed him a paltry reckoning. Instant 
payment with usury was demanded ; and when che 
poor fellow said he could not pay, for he had no 
money, he was taken before the judge, and pitilessly 
cast into prison. And the ill news soon reached the 
kind-hearted king, and his simple heart surged with 
grief and anger, and he caused the guilty servant to 
be called before him, and, when the attendants were 
gone, said : " Oh, thou wicked servant, I forgave thee 
all that debt for which thou wast beholden to me, 
and yet thou wert not generous enough to forgive 
thy brother-servant a paltry farthing." And the 
guilty servant was led away to the king's execu- 
tioners, and suffered a horrible death. 



DOGMA. 249 

There are still a few lessons for bigots to learn, 
even from him whose life and identity they pretend 
fully to comprehend, and who, when requested to 
define what he meant by neighbor, selected as an 
example a heathen, a gentile, and a heretic. 



250 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 



VI. 

IMMORTALITY. 

*' Immortality will come to such as are fit for it ; and he who would 
be a great soul in future must be a great soul now." 

MAN without hope is the saddest spectacle pos- 
sible to humanity ; for on hope is based the 
principle of his existence, or rather life, — for a man 
may exist and not live. The only inheritance Nature 
leaves him is this same life-estate, hope. 

Hence it is that every not merely temporary and 
ephemeral religion the world has seen, teaches, as one 
of its fundamental doctrines, the immortality of the 
soul. Reason, it is said, does not exclude the idea ; 
Nature yields to the possibility ; and experience, with 
a cloud of witnesses, confirms its reality. Thoughts 
of immortality bring out the noblest part of us, — love 
for those we have lost. The vast amount of consider- 
ation paid to it, from Homer and the earliest Hebrew 
or Eastern writers down to modern times, is a suffi- 
cient commentary on the place it holds in the human 
mind. The literature with immortality for its subject 
is alone enough to give life, measured only by the 
duration of the human species, to any subject. 

There is something in Nature beyond the apparent ; 
there is a life in death. Gross forms it may take, or 
again forms of ravishing beauty and fascination, or 
yet again phantom shapes touchingly sad and sweet, 
lingering in the memory, like the dreams of childhood, 



IMMORTALITY. 251 

when mother's eyes had not yet ceased nightly to 
look down from heaven. The very hills, the sea, and 
the skies do not so much raise questions and doubts 
as suggest the reality of an eternal world and a life- 
activity everlasting. 

What a wonderful thing is death ! Is it terrible, 
so awful as it often seems ? Are the legends that we 
all have heard really true ? Every ancient church- 
yard, every old village has its ghost. In the night, 
before the expiring fires, men speak in undertones of 
the haunted houses where gibbering, laughing, mock- 
ing spirits of the murdered walk. Men always have 
spoken and always will speak ominously and sadly of 
the sleep that knows no waking. To die and go we 
know not where, to decay in the grave and be food 
for worms, to bathe in fire or to shrink and shiver in 
the cold, 'to gibber and clatter in darkness, — ugh! 
well may one glance over his shoulder nervously, and 
feel a chill creeping over the body. We have heard 
that life is a lamentable state of passion and madness 
and sorrow, like a sick man's dream ; that Nature 
carries us down a fatal stream, urging and hurrying 
us on, only to shatter us in the end : we fall long 
distances to ruin. And then, the " silent grave," — no 
sound is heard ; no light, cheerful step of friends ; no 
gentle, kindly voice that once we knew : all is dark- 
ness and silence and cold. 

" To die, to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream." 

Is all this true ? Is Time a destroyer, and does it 
eat its children ? Or is death but a sleep, that steals 
away the senses gently and slowly, as day fades into 
night ? We shall, then, wake again to light and life 
and joy. 

Who can tell ? And what would one give, if only 



252 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

one might know, — know with certainty, feel sure as 
one does of present living ? It is well for us all that 
a sweet hope lies gently reposing over the heart. 
Still, it does seem hard to men to see friends depart 
as upon a boundless sea, to say farewell, to receive 
the last words in grief, in tears to lay away the dead, 
and then to turn away on this shore, when so willing 
to depart, with no expectation of seeing them more, 
unless as spirits or sickly phantoms. What wonder 
that a land of mystery springs up in the afflicted 
mind ? No wonder men have a land of shades, where 
walk the shapes of friends long dead, — a land still 
of doubt, and varying with each passing emotion, at 
times appearing as a vision, and again but as a pass- 
ing fancy. Many such eternal climes and boundless 
shores the life of man has seen, — many that are now 
no more ; many immortal gods have lived to comfort, 
to aid, to curse, — immortal gods that now are dead. 

Humanity ever runs up against the same mysteries, 
whatever direction be taken, — just as I have seen a 
tortoise confined in a tank attempting at all points 
to climb over the edge, only to fall back again and 
begin anew. The past and the future alike are hidden 
from human eyes. Even the scope of the imagination 
is limited to forms and directions already compre- 
hended by the intellect. 

It is sad to confess that Christian immortality, not- 
withstanding the advantages of previous centuries of 
human experience, does not begin to compare favor- 
ably, in purity and beauty of sentiment and in nobility 
of purpose, with that of other ages commonly consid- 
ered less refined, less noble, and less moral ; and 
this is despite the fact that the Christian religion as 
a whole is far superior to any other. After all, Chris- 
tianity at its best really does in a measure approach 



IMMORTALITY. 253 

the noble and lofty ideas of Christ. The founders 
of Christianity knew no compromise ; circumstances 
could not explain away error. First, all are damned ; 
second, unless you walk just exactly within the pre- 
scribed lines, you cannot win salvation, — never, never. 
Christian immortality is twofold. All souls are 
immortal, — some happily so, others so rather unfor- 
tunately. For a very few we have heaven ; for the 
masses, hell. 

" And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride." 

Happily a divine revelation opens to all the vision 
of the blissful shores of paradise, though few may 
enter, — perhaps, after all, few would care to enter. 
Eevelation comes at the end of the Bible, and conse- 
quently is rarely reached by the believer. On account 
of its peculiar nature it is rarely mentioned, to say 
nothing of being preached, in the pulpit. The second 
advent of Christ, according to prophecy, was to bring 
the world to an end. As the creation had occupied 
the space of six days, so the world would exist for six 
thousand years ; and as the labor of the creation was 
succeeded by a day of rest, so the long trial of hu- 
manity would be followed by a thousand years of 
repose. This was the common expectation, though 
the analogy would seem as far fetched as the familiar 
interpretation of the sign of the prophet Jonah. 

The New Jerusalem, the land of promise, — we 
must remember that Christianity is a continuation 
of Judaism, — was represented in different ways. 
Some, presumably the hungry and thirsty and un- 
fortunate in this world's goods, thought it was an- 
other Canaan overflowing with milk and honey, and 
oil and wine ; and to such the hope and expectation 
of plenty in the future was delightfully inviting. 



254 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

To otliers, more fortunate in satisfying their bodily- 
wants, the vision of a new and magnificent city, re- 
splendent with gold and silver and precious stones, 
unfolded itself to compensate for the loss of sacred 
Jerusalem. To the minds of all Christ's idea of pure 
and spiritual pleasure was too refined and profound. 
They were still of earth, and their ways were the 
ways and desires of man, unable even in deification 
to lay aside their human form and nature. A divine 
revelation, it has been said, discloses to us this prom- 
ised land. Open the page ; there, under that light of 
heaven, there, weary and heart-sick, before you lies 
the happy land, Beulah's shore, — there, oh, there ! 
Thither let us fly! 

We are disappointed ; there stands a great golden 
throne, upon which, arched over with a rainbow of 
emerald. Almighty God is seafed, to look upon like a 
big jasper and sardine stone. About the throne are 
four and twenty seats, occupied by a like number 
of elders, clothed in white raiment and crowned with 
crowns of gold. This is very like Jerusalem of old, 
— the bishop and the elders. God surely first occu- 
pied a seat in the Sanhedrim. Lightning and thunder 
prevail ; and all seems to come from under the throne, 
just as the electricity flashes in sheets under a de- 
railed electric car. The Thomson-Houston Company 
might get up quite a spectacle in heaven ; perhaps 
they will. There are seven lamps, the seven spirits 
of God, — a little mystical, to be sure ; but a traveller 
cannot be expected to understand all he sees in a 
strange land. A sea of glass stretches out before the 
throne ; and four winged beasts, more than Argus-eyed, 
watch over it, — a lion, a calf, a satyr, and an eagle. 
And these strange beasts eternally sing : " Holy, holy, 
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is 



IMMORTALITY. 255 

to come ; " while the elders bow themselves and wor- 
ship the Almighty, casting their crowns at his feet. 

This is something like an ancient mythical court, 
but altogether too insipid to attract many doughty 
knights or sage counsellors. As if to carry out the 
idea further, a herald proclaims a challenge to heaven 
and earth and the region under the earth, whatever 
it may be, not to fight for some fair lady's token, but 
to open a great book sealed with seven great seals. 
A horned lamb — this is the Christ — frisks up, and, 
wonder of wonders ! takes the book and opens it, while 
the elders with golden harps discourse sweet music, 
and a fragrance from golden vials pervades the air, 
— the prayers of saints. A new song is sung, not- 
withstanding the fact that the old song still was 
chanted forever and ever. All things are possible 
in heaven. 

Christ now proceeds to open the seven seals, with 
astonishing effect. The opening of each seal brings 
upon humanity some woful calamity ; this is a fea- 
ture worth noticing. The sorrows of men shall be 
the delights of angels. America's greatest theologi- 
cal light dwells on this point. Angels will not 
" be sorry for the damned ; it will cause no uneasi- 
ness or dissatisfaction to them ; but on the contrary, 
when they see this sight, it will excite them to joyful 
praises ; ... it will occasion rejoicing in them, as 
they will have the greater sense of their own hap- 
piness by seeing the contrary misery. . . . When 
they shall see how miserable others of their fellow- 
creatures are who were naturally in the same circum- 
stances with themselves ; when they shall see the smoke 
of their torment, and the raging of the flames of their 
burning, and hear their dolorous shrieks and cries, 
and consider that they are in the mean time in the 



256 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

most blissful state, and shall surely be in it to all 
eternity, how they will rejoice ! . . . Natural affec- 
tion is no virtue in the saints in glory ; their virtue 
will exercise itself in a higher manner.'^ 

It is needless to follow the opening of the seven 
seals ; they are much alike, and are attended with 
similar woes, causing like joy in heaven. The silence 
preceding the breaking of the last seal is ominous. 
It is easy to conjecture something fairly surprising, 
even in heaven, here. Seven angels appear, and each 
sounds a reveille on his trumpet, and at each trump 
more woes follow. Again there is suspense at the 
seventh trump. A mighty angel with raiment of 
cloud, with a rainbow about his head, whose face 
shines as the sun, and whose feet glisten like fire, 
bestrides the earth and sea like a Colossus. Great 
secrets he will unfold. We pause while the prophet 
eats a little book, for he must needs take refreshment 
to continue. 

We are treated in pantomime with wondrous sights 
now. A woman big with child appears, clad with 
the sun, the moon under her feet, and crowned with 
twelve stars, like one of Prang's prize designs. The 
next slide discloses a huge red dragon, with seven 
heads and ten horns, ready to eat the child about to 
be born. A war in heaven follows, and Michael and 
his legions do wonders of valor. Doubtless the Irish 
inherited their courage and pugnacity from this 
doughty champion of heaven, who whips the devil 
himself in fair fight. The next picture is that of a 
composite beast, — leopard, bear, and lion, — making 
war with saints ; him follows another beast even more 
wonderful. 

An intermission now ensues. A mighty noise is 
heard in heaven, like thunder, — bass accompaniment 



IMMOKTALITY. 257 

to the song of harpers. After the orchestra has fin- 
ished its programme, the celestial pantomime is re- 
sumed. Seven angels with seven plagues appear in 
tarn. A fall of Babylon, more spectacular than Bar- 
num's of a year ago, is vouchsafed the holy prophet ; 
and yet the dancing could not be better. The first 
resurrection and the general judgment follow, and a 
new heaven and a new earth appear, Jerusalem at- 
tending like a blushing bride. And all tears shall be 
wiped away, and there shall be no death, no sorrow, 
no pain, no night, but all shall be light and joyous 
and blithesome as a dream of sleeping infancy. Here 
shall the nations of the earth that are saved walk 
amid eternal delights, lighted without sun or moon or 
stars (I fear they will miss these twinkling beauties 
sadly), marked with the stamp of G-od on their brow. 
j\Iean while the prophet cheers us with the promise of 
a speedy realization of this bliss, if we shun the beast 
and add or detract not from his sacred book. 

This is the most that Christianity can offer to the 
faithful. It is pitiable indeed ! It may be we shall 
become accustomed to these talking beasts, this eter- 
nal singing of praises, this sea of glass, this eternity 
of cruel spectacles ; but there is little inducement in 
it all to an active, hearty man here on earth. If our 
virtue is to consign us to this limbo, heaven save us 
from virtue ! To such of the elect as believe in evolu- 
tion, — if, indeed, this is not heresy, — there may still 
be some hope. In the course of ages their nature may 
become modified, so that such an existence with such 
environment shall be truly the height of bliss. The 
same comfort may be extended to the damned ; they, 
too, may become so changed as to love what once was 
torment. On the whole, this concrete, objective life 
hereafter is a pretty shallow dream. The meanest 

17 



258 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

savage has quite as pleasant and cheerful a paradise 
as the civilized Christian. I have never yet heard of 
a future life, not purely abstract, so beautiful and at- 
tractive as that of the American Indian, nor one looked 
forward to so courageoiisly, or prepared for so simply 
and touchingly. The " Great Spirit " and the '' happy 
hunting-grounds " of the Indian are, to my mind, the 
most beautiful and the truest conceptions of God and 
immortality concrete that ever gained credence in an 
established religion. 

And hell was built on spite, — quite a natural con- 
clusion this, and perhaps very true besides. It takes 
but a sentence to describe hell. It is something in a 
sense more indefinite than heaven ; and yet with all 
its delightful uncertainty the place somehow seems 
well defined. 

A great pit, — big enough to hold, though quite un- 
comfortably, almost all the people the world has ever 
sustained; this pit contains a lake or sea of raging 
flame, or burning pitch ; a struggling, shrieking, curs- 
ing mass of people, comprising, as above indicated, al- 
most all created human beings, are immersed in this 
burning lake, — this is the Christian hell ! 

There can be no doubt about the reality of hell, de- 
spite some little uncertainty as to its character. How- 
ever much Christians differ about heaven and the 
manner in which souls shall find bliss and occupation, 
there is an awful unanimity of opinion about hell. 
Here the sects are all agreed, or practically so; for 
even those that are unwilling to consign the ignorant 
irrevocably to Sheol confess that they are unable to 
see how they can escape it. Of course this doctrine 
is not preached much from the pulpit to-day, — that 
is, from the aristocratic, fashionable pulpit. It is put 
in this way quite generally : ^' Dear brethren, come to 



IMMORTALITY. 259 

Jesus ! Oh, accept the bounteous gift so freely offered, 
so freely given, and escape the fate of the lost ! " They 
leave it right there, — the " lost." There is something 
very suggestive about this little word. A chapter or 
two might be written about it. The general reader 
will remember a little picture in " my uncle Toby's - ' 
history delightfully suggestive. " My young master 
in London is dead," said Obadiah. This gave the 
Corporal an opportunity, and he improved it. '*Are 
we not here now," said he, striking his cane perpen- 
dicularly upon the floor, " and are we not," dropping 
his hat upon the ground eloquently, " gone in a mo- 
ment ? " There is nothing in the fact that he dropped 
the hat ; but the way he did it spoke volumes. 

We have to go back a few years to find what this 
word " lost " means, or else out into the country to 
revival meetings. It is more convenient to choose the 
former course. 

" The wrath of God burns against them. Their damna- 
tion does not slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made 
ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them ; the 
flames do now rao;e and glow: the glitterino; sword is whet 
and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth 
under them." 

" The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as 
his own at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to 
him ; he has their souls in his possession and under his dominion. 
The Scripture represents them as his goods (Luke xi. 21). 
The devils watch them ; they are ever by them, at their right 
hand ; they stand waiting for them like greedy lions that see 
their prey and expect to have it, but are for the present kept 
back. If God should withdraw his hand by which they are 
restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. 
The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide 
to receive them ; and if God should permit it, they would be 
hastily swallowed up and lost." 



260 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The popular opinion of heaven and hell is probably 
gained more from Milton and Dante than from any 
other source. The pulpit reproduces these ideas, if 
any at all. Again, religious art has been a great fac- 
tor in setting forth such ideas. The devil may not be 
as black as he is painted, nor have so many shapes, I 
am inclined to think he is a good deal more winning 
and lovable than people seem to imagine. 

It would seem as if Christianity might have de- 
duced from Paganism a more inviting heaven; its 
hell is sufficient for all reasonable purposes. Yet it 
is plain that sensual pleasure was not generally the 
object of Christian desire. In this world it was 
frowned upon in every variety ; consequently con- 
sistency compelled its exclusion in a measure from 
heaven. The family relation being but a curse here, 
we have no such thing there ; natural affection here 
being evil, its existence there is denied ; only luxury 
could not quite be debarred. Man shall have in 
heaven that which most he needed on earth. All 
the good which was wanting here is lavishly bestowed 
on the faithful in heaven. The weary shall find rest, 
the afflicted shall rejoice, the halt and the maimed 
shall leap for joy, hunger and thirst shall not enter 
in, sickness and want shall disappear, and all tears 
shall be wiped away. The new earth must be differ- 
ent from this old worn-out vale of misery; and yet, 
there being no other terms, it is described by those 
in use here. 

Paganism did exactly the same thing. It promised 
men in the future life all the good that was denied 
here ; only, the Pagan idea of good differed from the 
Christian idea. To the Pagan this world was, in 
places at least, a beautiful habitation, and so heaven 
is composed of the meadows and groves of earth. 



IMMORTALITY. 261 

Youth and beauty and strength were all objects of 
righteous desire, and so we find all quite generally 
in the future world of Paganism. Generally the Pa- 
gan retained his identity, it being pleasing, just as 
the Christian loses his because it is hateful, or he 
tries to think so. Indeed the Pagan seems almost 
at times to mourn his departed mortality. The airy 
phantoms of Virgil and Homer flit to and fro in a 
dim hazy atmosphere, quite silent and gloomy, like 
the birds of the deep forest, pining for loss of life's 
activity. And yet far away in the distance lie the 
fair Elysian Fields, where Rhadamanthus, with hair 
of gold, reigns over a land sweet with the fragrance 
of earth; where sorrow is not, nor winter, nor rain, 
nor snow, and the never-dying zephyrs breathe soft 
and cool from off the ocean. Such delights the Pagan 
loved, and such we find in his future home. 

" Ye that have bravery, away with effeminate grief, and fly 
beyond the Tuscan shore. The ocean encircling the land 
awaits us. Let us seek the happy plains and the happy isl- 
ands, where the untilled land yearly produces fruit and the 
vine flourishes uncared for ; where the branch of the never- 
failing olive-blossoms and the purple fig adorns its native tree ; 
honey distils from the hollow oaks ; the light water bounds 
down from the lofty mountains with a gentle murmuring. 
There the she-goats come to the pail of their own accord, and 
the friendly flock return with udders distended ; nor does the 
bear at evening growl about the sheepfold, nor the ground 
swarm with snakes. Many more things shall we in happiness 
view with admiration : how neither the rainy east wind lays 
waste the cornfields, nor is the fertile seed scorched, the king 
of the gods moderating both. The Argonauts' ship never 
sailed hither, nor did lascivious Medea ever tread this soil ; 
hither the Sidonian mariners never trimmed their yards, nor 
the toiling crew of Ulysses. No contagious distempers hurt 
the flocks, nor do the fiery constellations scorch the herd. 



262 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Jupiter set apart those shores for a pious people, when he 
corrupted the golden age with brass, — with brass, then with 
iron he hardened the ages, from which there shall be a happy 
escape for the good." ^ 

The pride at the basis of Christian immortality is 
clearly apparent. The beasts of the earth are below 
man, and can have no share in his new home. Fame 
is for humanity alone. The world was created for 
man, and the sun and moon and stars to give him 
light and warmth, and to beautify his temporary 
home. The centre of the universe is man.' How, 
then, shall his life be limited to this earth ? Shall 
his happiness be controlled by that which was created 
for his use, and his alone ? Philosophy and meta- 
physics are invented. Matter and mind are different. 
So, then, the body is but a prison for the soul. 
Oh happy day that shall set me free ! 

Still, man is vain even of his body, prison though 
it be. Even his god is framed in his image. Chris- 
tian art of all ages magnifies this, and endows it with 
grace and beauty. The virgins of Eaphael and the 
angels of Michael Angelo are not lacking in bodily 
grace ; on the contrary, this is all they possess. 
Their faces reveal no strength of character, and are 
quite generally insipid and meaningless. These an- 
gels are all beautiful curves and lines of beauty; 
and modern Christians, dilating upon these ravishing 
beauties, hoping such grace for themselves perhaps, 
do not think of the vigils and toils and fastings of 
saints. Nothing is further from their minds. 

What an unworthy hope for the future this is, and 
what a proud, conceited idiot man is to expect and 
desire such a life ! As if the great Controller of 

1 Horace. 



IMMORTALITY. 263 

Nature shoula select from all his infinite universe 
puny, insignificant man alone, him to honor and to 
cherish ! Every people has declared God to rule all 
men, and that men are his especial care. For their 
good or ill fortune, as one looks at it, every god has 
had his devil ; for their special use each has created 
the world ; for their particular enjoyment the heavens, 
the ever-shining stars, and all beauties in earth and 
sky ; upon them particularly has each enjoined obedi- 
ence and submission ; for their use each has miracu- 
lously supplied a law; for them has he wrought 
miracles and wonders ; them has he specially loved, 
them specially hated; them has he promised a para- 
dise of eternal joy and contentment, brilliant with 
jewels and silver and gold ; them has he threatened 
with a hell, horrible with infinite torments, bitter as 
gall with vile reproaches. Perhaps the animals have 
the same egotistical faith, egotistical even in its pun- 
ishments. Is not man in the universe more like a 
tick in a sheep, — instead of its crowning triumph its 
insignificant parasite ? 

Curiously enough, with all this conceit there is a 
ludicrous modesty or deference in humanity ; for 
immortality seems quite as much an object of dread 
as of hope. Men in misfortune, still, however, strong 
and healthy, may sing the delights of the hereafter, 
and pray soon to be delivered from this world of care ; 
but when the dark messenger beckons, they disavow 
with surprising naivete all idea of haste, and are 
quite willing to remain awhile longer. 

Long before the witty Englishman, an acre in 
Middlesex was valued much more highly than a 
principality in Utopia. Even Achilles says : — ■ 

" Talk not of ruHng in this dolorous gloom, 
jSTor think vain words, he cries, can ease my doom. 



264 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Rather I 'd choose laboriously to bear 
A weiorht of woes, and breathe the vital air, 
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, 
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead." 

Homer certainly was not nodding when he wrote 
the original of these lines. It is all very pretty for 
poets to picture death, chaplet-bound, playing upon a 
dulcimer, and singing to the sweet accompaniment such 
a song of consolation that humanity cannot choose 
but follow, — this is all very well, but generally the 
representation is that of a horrible skeleton with a 
scythe, riding a pale horse, or, more commonly still, 
a skull and crossbones. Death in itself is not often 
beautiful to contemplate ; but the cause can render it 
glorious. 

Immortality is no idle thing. It is no reward for 
virtue, imaginary or real, and consists not of a table 
eternally set with all the delicacies the appetite of 
man can desire. The rude savage expects his dog, his 
bottle, and his wife. A man half civilized should 
rise above this. How strange are the inconsistencies 
of life ! Who would not consider the happy hunting- 
grounds of the Indian preferable to the stupid, mean- 
ingless, mystical heaven of Christianity ? On the 
other hand, beasts, now denied existence at all here- 
after, were once considered the very gods themselves. 
What silly foolishness ! We dress up paradise like 
kings' palaces and gardens, so that only kings shall 
be worthy to dwell there. No dogs nor cattle may 
trespass on the nicely trimmed lawns, or trample the 
flowers. Just so little boys pray for tin horns, and 
for countless pockets to their clothes for lollipo]3S 
and toys. 

Immortal life on snch grounds is exceedingly doubt- 
ful, — a very pretty legend for children, but by no 



IMMORTALITY. 265 

means a likely story for reasonable men. All theories 
of the hereafter are practically on the same level. 
The wisest philosopher can tell us no more than the 
vilest heathen. Four thousand years of philosophy 
and metaphysics have thrown absolutely no light on 
the state of the human soul hereafter. Without the 
aid of revelation, which in itself is a concession of 
the whole question, all investigation and all theories 
of the soul have been miserable and complete failures. 
We are not one single step farther advanced than was 
Job, of Old Testament fame. For Christians all 
truth is in the Bible. For a thousand years or more 
it has been the same old book. It has been open to 
all the ages, and all have read it more or less care- 
fully and critically. Not a word, not a verse can be 
added to it. Science nor art can change it. Not a dis- 
covery of new arts, not an invention of new appliances, 
can affect in the slightest degree the future life there 
asserted and defined, or the means of attaining it. 

The resurrection of Christ has been in this book 
from the first, and in the same way. Men have 
believed in its actual reality. I suppose men do so 
believe it now, or think they believe it, though I 
cannot fully understand why. And the same is true 
of the doctrine of the transubstantiation. For my 
part, I can imagine nothing to overthrow the over- 
whelming force of the reasoning against them both. 
If men really do believe either of these doctrines now, 
there would seem to be no reason why they should 
not find believers as long as the race exists, or at 
least some doctrines of a similar nature, for Chris- 
tianity is quite as likely to pass away as Paganism 
ever was. Faith which will accept such statements 
and theories as facts positively and literally true, will 
stand any test that can possibly be conceived of. 



266 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

But there is one feature, thus far prominent in all 
the religious faiths that have ever been known, which 
has in every instance been the cause of their decline 
and ultimate rejection, and which will yet prove 
the destruction of Christianity, if indeed it has not 
already thus become so weakened as to render the 
statement non-prophetic. All religions combine with 
assertions strictly theological and metaphysical other 
statements purely logical and physical. Science, in 
the course of time overthrowing these purely logical 
and physical teachings, quite naturally casts doubt upon 
all the other teachings. This is the only way science 
can aid religion. The Christian, finding the whole 
world limited in the Old Testament to a very small 
part of what he now knows the world to be, soon 
learns to doubt the Creation and the Fall. 

This, however, cannot affect in any way a belief in 
the immortality of the soul, not confined to sect or 
religion. The only change that can be expected is a 
change of character, which in time may lift the soul out 
of the realms of vulgar superstition. About immortal- 
ity itself in some form there can be little question. To 
the evolutionist it is axiomatic ; and it is not strange 
that humanity, weary of the endless disputes of phi- 
losophers, tortured by uncertainty, led on by love, 
longing in its objections even for something to believe 
and to hold fast to, accepts unqualifiedly and un- 
reservedly the teachings of one and another sect, 
whose disciples with firm, unswerving faith and loyalty 
assert and maintain a supernatural commission. 

At times everything is rejected, and people seem 
to accept the idea of annihilation. To the weary and 
faint-hearted death seems not so cheerless. It rather 
brings an end to misfortune and care and doubt. It 
cannot be an evil, reason says, to leave all disap- 



IMMORTALITY. 267 

pointment and sorrow, all falsehood and treachery 
and unkinduess, shame, and despair, and be at rest 
forever. The poet sings : " Be of good cheer, heart ; 
for when thy beating shall cease, it shall bring an 
end to thy suffering as well." 

" Rest ! Rest ! Oh, give me rest and peace 1 
The thougrht of life tliat ne'er shall cease 
Has something in it like despair, 
A weight I am too weak to bear ! 
Sweeter to this afflicted breast 
The thought of never-endinor rest ; 
Sweeter the undisturbed and deep 
Tranquillity of endless sleep." 

Such feeling is by no means common, however, for 
hope is above despair. The more cheerful and invit- 
ing idea will prevail, — 

"... Life is ever lord of Death, 
And Love can never lose its own." 

There may be woes beyond, to be sure ; but the 
mother whose child lies faint on her breast with but 
a spark of life, fain to think, if it die first, her heart 
will break, — almost to hope her heart would break, 
— finds comfort even in the end. Though she would 
gladly have given her life that it might live, yet from 
the cold, silent form, beautiful in death, rises a hope 
that summons a smile through the tears, — a hope of 
again clasping to her bosom in joy the little child, 
sweet with the radiance of heaven. How touchingly 
sweet it is that women, that mothers, are richer in 
faith than men ! God has surely made them better 
and nobler ; and who knows but this crowning love, 
this passing self-sacrifice of women, is the earthly 
manifestation of the spirit that rules the universe ? 
Whether there be a physical heaven of joy and 



268 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

bliss, an eternal city resplendent with jewels, capital 
of a land rich in fruits and flowers, awaiting tho 
faithful in Christianity; whether there be a hell, a 
burning lake of sulphur, into which shall be plunged 
irrevocably all the masses who have not sought the 
heaven of Christianity, or who have been so unfortu- 
nate as never to have heard of it, — may well be ques- 
tions of dispute. Be it so or not, there is an immortal 
life, in very truth, and one which can readily be un- 
derstood. The dead do live again, and a life that 
cannot be misapprehended. There is a life beyond 
the grave, and it is simply this : Every deed is an 
eternal mother. 

The gods do not conceal the future from men; 
there is no concealment at all. Everything is as 
plain and simple as day, and open to all ; only man 
cannot understand it. The fact that man has not 
torn away the veil from the future, or raised the 
skirt of Isis, does not by an3'' means indicate that the 
gods have anything to conceal from man. It is a 
reflection upon man alone, who, with his usual con- 
ceit, throws off the blame on the gods. Men will 
never reach heaven by piling Ossa on Pelion. 

The most trivial action begets an infinity of suc- 
cessors, and these in turn yield a harvest an hundred- 
fold more fruitful, reaching off into infinity. There 
is no shore to break the ripple which this pebble 
makes. An earnest word or two may build a nation, 
just as a little insect, or an idle wave, may carry the 
pollen on a flower petal which in a few ages will ex- 
pand to a mighty forest. Men should not so much 
prepare for eternity as engraft eternity upon and 
within themselves. 

Our friends and acquaintances do not die, — no, not 
one of them. All live on forever and ever, whether 



IMMORTALITY. 269 

we are conscious of it or not, whether we believe it 
or not. Their appearance only dies, and its image 
fades out of the memory. Thus everything that 
ever was, is, and shall eternally be. When did Christ 
die? 

« Things seem to die, but die not. The spring showers 
Die on the bosom of the motherly earth, 
But rise again in fruits and leaves and flowers ; 
And every death is nothing but a birth." 

When William of Orange died, as we call it, it is 
said that the children cried in the streets. His im- 
mortal soul entered into the life of his people, and it 
dwells there to this day, and shall abide. When the 
sad news of our own Lincoln's cruel death was learned, 
strong men wejjt like children; and Washington's 
calm, patient spirit is a very talisman or touchstone 
to the whole American people. Are these men dead, 
think you ? Have they passed away yet, though cen- 
turies or but years have flown ? No praise in life 
was ever so great as such praise in death. To live, to 
die, like these, is immortality. Henry Esmond, well 
known to most people, says of his wife, whose grave 
is ever green, like the grave of many a spring, " To 
think of her is to praise God." 

Think of John Brown, traitor, murderer, — whom 
they hanged by the neck until he was dead ! After he 
had hung there awhile, they felt his pulse, and then 
said he was dead, and took him down and buried him : 
it broke his neck, for all I know. Now turn over a 
page or two : mighty armies, with the wings of death, 
go flying, scurrying by. But listen well ; hear that 
deep humming, that steady undertone swelling now 
and again in the breeze, rising at times above the 
storm and crash of battle and thunder and roar of can- 



270 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

non, — listen well ; in perfect rhythm with the heavy 
tramp, tramp, tramp, it rises : — 

" John Brown's body Ues a-mouldering in the grave, 
But his soul is marchino; on." 

The history of a great and bloody war, lasting for 
four long years, and bringing untold sorrow to mil- 
lions of hearts, lies in those simple words. 

Oh no, there shall be no giving in marriage in 
heaven. Good great men shall dwell as it were the 
angels of God. That is what Christ said. They 
shall speak to the living, ay, shout and sing to -them 
in thunder tones and in chorus, and again they shall 
whisper soft and gentle words, as the spirit spoke to 
Socrates. Sometimes they shall not speak at all, nor 
whisper, but only look, — look perchance, and smile, 
alas, it may be with sadness ; and as the face shall 
turn away, averting, it may leave a broken heart. 

What think you of this life ? Is it mean, is it nar- 
row, is it unworthy? So are you that say it, and it 
would be a blessing if only you might leave it. Your 
future, — what of it ? Can you hope to smile there 
over beyond, when you never learned here ? Will 
children bless you there, when you never gave any 
here so much as a drop of cold water ? I fear you 
will raise but a frown, an immortal frown forever 
and ever, for such was your mortal smile. And if 
you think to sing, assuredly you will make woful 
harmony. It requires a good deal of careful, patient 
vocal training here on earth to render music, — mel- 
ody that shall rebuild Thebes and convert a nation. 

" Wliere shall we bury our shame ? 
Where, in what desolate place. 
Hide the last wreck of a name 
Broken and stained by disgrace? 



IMMORTALITY. 271 

Death may dissever the chain, 

Oppression will cease when we 're gone ; 

But the dishonor, the stain, 
Die as we may, will live on." 

Is life noble, is it true and helpful ? So are 
you. And it will never be less so. Fret not your- 
selves : appearances are but shadows. Is not the 
body only appearance ? It does not speak unless 
with the mind. Life may be perfect, and yet have 
little or no visual appearance. There have been many 
such, hundreds of them ; but worry not. I have 
strolled in the woods in the springtime, and inhaled 
delightful and sweet perfume that came whence I know 
not : I could not find the flower on stem or tree, nor 
could I hear the hum of bee ; for aught I know it 
was the spirit of just men, — sometimes I know it 
was the spirit, recalled and detained by memory, of 
her whose loving care was the protection of my 
youth, the creator in me of all the good I ever 
knew. 

Our wives have a pretty custom of saving fallen 
rose petals, and putting them away safely in a little 
jar. These little jars rest on the mantel for years as 
sweet as the rose itself, — 

" You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 

Say, learned dunces, when did those roses die ? 
Sir Philosopher Ignoramus, did you analyze those 
violets, did you kill the life in those pale blossoms ? 
You may indeed ruthlessly have torn them in pieces, 
and extracted the paltry secret you call truth and life ; 
but your little girl, little Annie, who gathered them 
and loved them and inhaled their fragrance, inces- 



272 CHKIST vs. CHEISTIANITY. 

santly petting them and praising their sweetness, she 
has their real life, and she is infinitely better and 
greater than you. But even you, too, may become as 
great, if only you will be like her, — not proud and vain 
and boastful, but modest and simple and true. Like 
a flower, then, only a thousand times sweeter, fuller 
of meaning, and more potent and helpful, is she who 
left you in youth or in the prime of life, dear friend, 
who has fallen asleep and rests now in that quiet 
place, so familiar, where it is so sweet to retire sunny 
afternoons in spring and autumn. 

Are Haydn and Mendelssohn dead ? When did 
the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind pass away ? 
Beyond a doubt I have heard songs that have no 
words, and yet that are eloquent and full of meaning. 
I am sure I have loved and wept with Shakspeare, 
and but yesterday my friend and I listened to Thack- 
eray. I have seen machinists and others who could 
tell me of Fulton and Arkwright, and with my own 
eyes I have beheld Thomas Edison and Graham Bell. 

In a great and prosperous w^oman's college in the 
East,^ Christian immortality is made of primal impor- 
tance. The weak, sickly Christian sentimentality 
which exists among the students and teachers is dis- 
gusting to many young women of healthy, well-regu- 
lated minds, who have to submit to it or suffer worse 
torture. The attempt is made to couple every trivial 
incident of the day with some Bible verse. The ob- 
ject of every effort is to glorify the kingdom of heaven. 
The rule of life seems to be made literally : Seek first 
the kingdom of heaven and all things shall be added. 
Compared with heaven, this earth is of no consequence 
at all. What a training this is for a young, pure- 
minded, but active girl ! No wonder so many young- 
1 Wellesley College. 



IMMORTALITY. 273 

woman graduates are so silly and worthless. To 
women as well as men this earth is of primary impor- 
tance. Too much attention cannot be given to earthly 
things ; too little cannot be given to heaven. Young 
women, care for this life, cherish it : it is rich in 
blessings to you, if you use it wisely ; and blessings 
innumerable you may confer. No one can exert a 
better and more noble influence upon mankind than a 
pure-minded, earnest woman. Wisely im.prove the 
opportunities of this world, and all things shall be 
added. 

" They may rail at this life, — from the hour I began it, 

I found it a life full of kindness and bliss ; 
And until they can show me some happier planet, 

More social and bright, I '11 content me with this. 
As long as the world has such lips and such eyes 

As before me this moment enraptured I see, 
They may say what they will of the orbs in the skies, 

But this earth is the planet for you, love, and me. 

" As for those chilly orbs on the verge of creation, 

Where sunshine and smiles must be equally rare. 
Did they want a supply of cold hearts for that station, 

Heaven knows we have plenty on earth we could spare. 
Oh ! think what a world we should have of it here, 

If the haters of peace, of affection, and glee 
Were to fly up to Saturn's comfortless sphere, 

And leave earth to such spirits as you, love, and me ! " 

There may be people that will sing round a great 
white throne in praise and flattery of a real and visible 
king of glory, — indeed there are many who have done 
this, and who still do so now, — but there are better 
lives, more pure, more humble, more helpful. They 
that so dance and sing now will keep up their dizzy 
whirling step without change or rest forever. 

18 



274 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Herodias has never ceased to dance before the king. 

I suspect that if heaven really be that curious land 
so often mentioned in sacred literature, the elect will, 
for a time at least, sadly miss the beautiful skies and 
fruitful meadows of old earth. Simple country souls 
will long to hear a cock crow in the morning, or the 
doves softly cooing as they used to under the eaves 
of the old barn. If, after all, faith awaits only a mag- 
nified earth in heaven, disappointed, it will find that 
revelation has omitted many, many things exceedingly 
comfortable and cheerful that we have here. Unless, 
according to the evolution heresy, Nature adapt her- 
self to environment, the saints in glory will wish for 
old earth again, and a human companion, if it were 
indeed only to say, " How our shadows lengthen as 
the sun goes down ! " or, '^ How fresh is the face of 
Nature, how sweet the flowers of the field, how deli- 
cious are these fruits ! " 

Whatever the hereafter may bring, be sure it will 
bring only what each and every one deserves. Im- 
mortality of no kind is to be won like a prize in a 
lottery ; so that when all is said, the future life is 
controlled by this life, and consequently the absurdity 
of taking thought for a physical heaven is plain. The 
present only humanity can control, and the present is 
for eternity. 

" The Present, the Present, is all thou hast 
For thy sure possessing ; 
Like the patriarch's angel, hold it fast 
Till it gives its blessing. 

" Peopling the shadows, we turn from Him 
And from one another ; 
All is spectral and vague and dim, 
Save God and our brother. 



IMMORTALITY. 275 

" Like warp and woof all destinies 
Are woven fast. 
Linked in sympathy like the keys 
Of an oro;an vast. 

"Pluck one thread, and the web ye mar; 
Break but one 
Of a thousand keys, and the paining jar 
Through all will run. 

" Oh, restless spirit ! wherefore strive 
Beyond thy sphere ? 
Heaven and hell, with their joy and pain, 
Are now and here. 

" Back to thyself is measured well 
All thou hast given ; 
Thy neighbor's wrong is thy present hell; 
His bliss, thy heaven. 

" Then of what is to be, and of what is done, 
Why queriest thou ? 
The past and the time to be are one, 
And both are Xow." 

Wisely to improve the present, to find in it pleas- 
ure as well as labor, to acquire the ability of deriving 
benefit from the things freely given and lying all 
about, rather than to fret and worry in the trying 
pursuit of the things at a distance, is all very good 
and reasonable advice in a general way ; but to give up 
all thought and desire for the future because only this 
life is certain, and because it is short, is not the high- 
est and truest view of earthly existence. For while 
it is true that one's own individual life is short, the 
life of man is not so ephemeral. Not an individual 
but influences in some degree the whole future of the 
human race. Every act has an endless effect ; every 



276 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

deed is an eternal mother. Here is a truly noble field 
for the play of the imagination, and for the highest 
satisfaction of the intellect. If this seem but a silly 
and fanciful idea at present, the future will elevate 
humanity to its level. It is a glorious and infinite 
truth which future ages will honor and extend. 

As men grow in wisdom, and learn to improve their 
condition by a fuller understanding of the forces about 
them, greater and higher pleasures will be revealed, 
which will render the old ideas of the future less 
and less alluring. It is they that secure little from 
this life who hope to find compensation in the next. 
Having suffered here, they hope for pleasure in the 
hereafter. When men shall learn really to live on 
earth the fullest and richest life humanity is capable 
of in each successive age, less thought will be directed 
to the hereafter. After all, there is a too unworthy 
selfishness in Christian immortality; and at this point 
the system most signally fails of the lofty ideal of 
Christ. 

It may be that many will wish that something more 
were offered to take the place of the Christian faith in 
the immortality of the soul. Some may have expected 
a substitute. For such there is none in kind. He 
who wishes other hope for the future than the one 
thus briefly outlined, is not yet ready to receive this 
seed, of which the harvest is an absolute certaint}^ 
He who cannot comprehend the relation of cause and 
effect, and with satisfaction, will never attain to our 
idea of immortality, though innumerable examples day 
by day bear witness to its absolute reality. He who 
cannot in his mind summon the loved and lost to life 
again, and understand with gratitude that such life is 
none the less real because physically invisible, will 
never attain to the lofty ideal set by the master him- 



IMMORTALITY. 277 

self. For that which is born of the flesh, is flesh; 
and that which is born of spirit, is spirit. Like the 
wind which blows where it lists, the sound of which 
we hear indeed, but cannot tell whence it conies nor 
whither it goes, is the spirit. 

Perchance as our eyes now see in the movement of 
the very winds order and regularity, we may even find 
a cheerful and beneficent future for the soul that has 
blessed the earth. With how much greater emphasis, 
then, is the sublime teaching thus renewed ; and how 
touchingly sweet and comforting is that old, old story 
thus understood ! We cannot get back to Christ ; we 
must go forward to him. Thus approached, the very 
presence of the master himself seems to renew the 
life and meaning of those beautiful words : " Mary, 
thy brothier shall rise again, and not as thou hast 
thought, in the resurrection of the body at the last 
day; the present, the past, and the future live only 
in spirit : for I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live." The soul, the spirit lives on, though the 
body lie mouldering in the grave. 

This is the most beautiful and sublime inspiration 
the world has ever known. The mind is above the 
body. Christ, and the apostles too, mistaken though 
they were, have found victory in death, and live now, 
and truly shall live forever. Thou art indeed right, 
great teacher and thinker. Though heaven and earth 
pass, and all written word and thought pass with 
them, yet shall not thy word pass away : for thy word 
is truth ; and truth has been, is, and shall be, though 
never so mucli as uttered or even thouorht. 



278 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 



VII. 
PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 

" Egad, I think the interpreter is the harder to he understood of 

the two ! " 

CONSIDERING human life as a continuous ex- 
istence personified to a single individual, this 
one person, viewed from a scientific standpoint, ap- 
pears to be travelling on an endless road that stretches 
back through various windings until it is lost in dark- 
ness, and runs forward as the person is travelling 
until again it is lost in a flood of dazzling light. As 
he travels, there is continuous change as the point of 
view alters. The alluring, tantalizing lake, fringed 
with refreshing verdure, strangely sinks into the des- 
ert. Mountain ranges melt into cloud and dissolve in 
vapor. The long shadows shorten, shift their places, 
and finally disappear. This road might be considered 
as color, beginning with a jet black and shading off 
to the imperceptible color of light. 

This single individual, viewed again from a meta- 
physical standpoint, appears to be permanently fixed 
on a pivot, which permits him to face all directions 
in succession, but never to progress in any. This 
pivotal man seems to be dimly outlined in a thick, 
uncertain mist of grayish hue, perfectly even in color. 
Keeping this latter idea in mind, it may be well to 
look through the eyes of our imaginary individual 
as he is turned around. We shall find that the view 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 279 

extends in all directions to exactly the same distance, 
and is lost always in exactly the same uncertain haze. 
The same question is continually raised, and the same 
answer always returns. 

What am I, and what is this world about me ? 
Who made me, and to what end ? Is my life limited 
to this world ? From the earliest times recognized 
by man these questions have been framed; and in gen- 
eral, the metaphysical answers have been identical, 
though the form has been different. No answer has 
yet been given that is in any sense satisfactory. The 
Sphinx has never revealed her secret. The knot has 
never been untied, though it has been cut again and 
again. 

For convenience, the history of philosophy has been 
separated into two main divisions, ancient and mod- 
ern. Each comprises several so-called schools. These 
may best be considered in chronological order. 

I. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 

1. The Ionic School. A material element or prin- 
ciple is claimed to explain the universe. Everything 
has a common foundation ; and this is matter, of one 
form or another. The fundamental elements are the 
familiar earth, air, fire, and water of the old school 
books. Thales, of Miletus, b. c. 636, figures prominently 
in this school. A power behind Nature is recognized. 
Water is first claimed as the primal creative element. 
But Anaximander, b. c. 610, perceives that water is 
destructive as well as productive, and claims that the 
qualities are inconsistent; for the creative principle 
cannot both build up and destroy. Consequently he 
sets up a double element, apx^^ — that is, beginning. 
This element is finite and infinite at once, and gives 



280 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

off heat and cold, corresponding to life and death. 
Anaximines, b. c. 529, declares that air is the primal 
element. Air produces the other elements by concus- 
sion. Thus the clouds coming together cause light- 
ning. Under his teaching air was personified as 
a god. 

2. The Pythagorean School. This school was 
established by Pythagoras, of Samos, b. c. 600, who 
claimed that research had been conducted hitherto in 
the wrong direction. The fundamental element is not 
qualitative, but is based rather on quantity. To ex- 
plain his meaning, he reasoned thus : water is not the 
element, but rather how much water, or the quantity 
of water ; and thus he reached number as the creative 
principle. All relations are numerical. Furthermore, 
numbers are symbolical. The idea was consistently 
maintained, reaching throughout the physical and the 
metaphysical world alike. Harmony is universal. It 
applies alike to music and morals, mind and matter. 
The soul is recognized as a higher region or degree 
of harmony. 

.3. The Eleatic School. This school is a culmina- 
tion of philosophical endeavor. The steps of progress 
are clear. A power behind Nature and controlling it 
is recognized at first, upon which ancient mythology 
is based by simple personification. Then follows a 
material element, perceptible at first, and then im- 
perceptible, to be succeeded in turn by the numerical 
idea, which may have been non-material. The Eleatic 
school comes out boldly and clearly, basing its doc- 
trine upon an element imperceptible and non-material, 
— namely, pure being. Xenophanes, b. c. 620, is the 
leader. The universe is claimed to be spherical, per- 
fect, and eternal. He opposes mythology and anthro- 
pomorphism. He is the first pantheist, and is above 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 281 

all a sceptic. Parmenides, b. c. 536, famous for hav- 
ing lived a perfect life, teaches that pure thought aud 
pure being are one. The mutable is only apparent ; 
the real is unchangeable. Zeno, b. c. 500, is promi- 
nent in this school. From the inconsistency of the 
many he finds the reality of the one. Multiplicity 
and movement are both impossible. His paradox on 
motion is famous, and the position is maintained to 
this day by no less a light than Spencer. 

4. Indepexdent Philosophers. Heraclitus, b. c. 
503, leads the independents, and is considered one 
of the most profound of all the ancients. His work 
on philosophy is supposed to be the oldest prose trea- 
tise on the subject. Early philosophy was written in 
poetry. Socrates even commends Heraclitus. Muta- 
tion is the central thought in his system ; there is 
no such thing as permanence. Life is a stream ever 
ebbing and flowing. Strife is the father of all things. 
Fire seems to be his primal element ; and on this 
account, by many he is classed among the Ionic phi- 
losophers. Empedocles, b. c. 450, followed in his 
footsteps, denying origination and destruction. Hate 
creates union ; love causes separation. But Anaxag- 
oras, friend of Pericles, b. c. 500, is the most famous 
independent. He denies the reality of the Athenian 
gods, and has to leave Athens for it ; but leaving, he 
utters those immortal words : " It is not I that have 
lost the Athenians, but the Athenians that have lost 
me." He distinguishes between force and matter. In- 
telligence is his ruling principle, and an intelligence 
embracing design. His intelligence is separated into 
constituents like our molecules ; and he asserts that 
these molecules, as it were, pervade all things. 

5. The Atomists. Leusippus founds the school ; 
but Democritus, b. c. 460, is its distinguished light. 



282 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Atoms are the primal elements. Quality is defined 
as but variation of quantity. The atom is an inde- 
pendent entity. The soul is an aggregate of atoms, 
and its perception is occasioned by effluxes of atoms 
given out by various objects. Vision and hearing are 
explained similarly. Thus a tree by throwing its pe- 
culiar atoms as it were into the eye causes the image 
in the mind. Anger is centred in the heart, desire 
in the liver. He introduces the element of chance 
into philosophy, though it was not altogether un- 
known. Like atoms have a mutual attraction. Chance 
is not personified. 

6. The Sophists. All these materialistic theories 
proved failures. The Sophists fall back on the indi- 
vidual. Each individual has the ultimate authority 
in and of himself. We have much to thank the So- 
phists for. In this school was democracy born. All 
lovers of free institutions will ever be grateful to 
these, though their very name became a byword and 
a reproach, and is so even to this day. The rule of 
reason and of mind distinguished this school. The 
Sophist is pre-eminently a teacher, and for a time at 
least a popular teacher. However weak and erratic 
their views, they encouraged thought and study, and 
each was free to his own opinions. 

Protagoras, b. c. 480, was prominent among this 
class. He maintained that truth was to each indi- 
vidual just exactly what he saw and felt for himself. 
Rare sense this; and it seems that Christ himself later 
taught the same doctrine, — he becomes an honorary 
member of the society. But Protagoras went too far. 
He declared that there was no general truth ; and for 
this dangerous teaching his books were burned and he 
himself banished. Prodicus became the most highly 
respected of the school. But the doctrine could 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 283 

not be retained long; it was too far in advance 
of the times. It was practically non-philosopMcal 
agnosticism. 

7. The Socratic Philosophy. Socrates, b. c. 469, 
is of course the founder. He is in a way the fore- 
runner of Christ, an hundredfold more truly arid 
profoundly so than John the Baptist, for he is the 
intellectual forerunner. He claimed that a spirit 
dissuaded him at times, much as Christ did later. 
He mocked the prevailing idiosyncrasies of philos- 
ophy, just as Christ later derided the hypocritical 
absurdities of Judaism. For this he suffered death as 
a blasphemer and a corrupter of youth, just as Christ 
was crucified as a heretic. 

iSTature had proved inexhaustible to philosophy, and 
Socrates abandons it practically; he seeks the good. 
The highest good is man's duty ; but to attain this 
man must know what is good, and so he comes to 
investigate the human mind. He agrees with the 
Sophists, finding that mind rules ; but he distin- 
guishes between reason and caprice. It is claimed 
that at this point he breaks with the Sophists. Eeally 
he is only the better partisan ; he is only more pro- 
found. He supplants ethics by morality. He is the 
shrewdest of the ancients. He retains the question- 
ing on his side by frankly admitting that he does not 
know, and asking for information. His mother was 
a midwife; he, too, is another, helping the mind of 
others to bear its children, thought. 

In morals, to his mind, evil is only ignorance. Vir- 
tue is knowledge. He founds no religion or philoso- 
phy; but schools were established after him, just as 
Christianity followed Christ. Important among these 
was Cynicism (Diogenes, b. c. 412), teaching that the 
end of life is freedom from desire. This school taught 



284 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

that men should despise pleasure and luxury. It 
sneered at prevailing customs and manners, and even 
at the prevailing dress of the Athenians. It denied 
both art and science, denouncing one as a lie and a 
sham, and the other as an unworthy fancy. Cynicism 
f6llowed Socrates just as Christianity followed Christ. 
Is it not strange to lind at this time a perfect proto- 
type of Christianity ? 

Hedonism is another school founded on the Socratic 
philosophy, teaching that happiness is the end of man ; 
not sensual license, but refined mental and moral 
pleasure. Megarianism (Euclid, b. c. 450) is another 
school, developing the logical side of the philosophy. 

But Plato, B. c. 429, is supposed to be the best imi- 
tator of Socrates, though it is to be feared that his 
philosophy may resemble in a way Mr. Pope's Ho- 
mer. His theory of the idea is pronounced. Thought 
is a permanent subjective reality. He denied the idea 
of the Sophists that knowledge is but opinion. Ideas 
subjective regulate knowledge ; ideas objective are 
the essential principles of existence. Things, then, 
participate in ideas, and become real only through 
the idea. Ideas unite, rising higher and higher, 
until we reach the one ultimate idea. Justice and 
Beauty and Truth are involved in this ultimate. 
Deity is not quite personal, though creative. 

Aristotle, b. c. 384, follows Plato, differing only in 
that he claims that ideas have no objective existence. 
He recognizes the unity of essence in the world. Mat- 
ter apart from form has no existence. Form involves 
thought, matter, and purpose. Something exists, and 
this is eternal. Eecognizing the cosmos as real, a chain 
of cause and effect must follow. This leads to a first 
cause which is originating and divine. He does not 
claim that worship is due this divine being. 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 285 

8. The Sceptics. Pyrrho, b. c. 325, was the 
founder of this philosophy. Little or nothing is 
known of his teaching. The philosophy is based on 
the principle that there is no standard of judgment 
of truth. Things simply appear to us in one light 
or another. The philosophy is negative. Epicurean- 
ism (Epicurus, B. c. 342) is really but a form of Scep- 
ticism. It resembles Hedonism, and its search was 
directed to happiness in its best sense. Scepticism, 
abandoning the endless and fruitless disputes of the 
other schools, sought refuge in morals. Indeed, Soc- 
rates himself first made philosophy moral. 

The Stoics (Zeno, third century b. c.) followed in a 
great measure the principles laid down by Aristotle. 

9. jSTeoplatoxism. Greece no longer remained 
the home of philosophy. Egypt and Rome became 
the new centres. It is even claimed that philosophy 
at this time became absolutely lost ; and it unquestion- 
ably does yield its independence, becoming henceforth 
for centuries but the doting parasite of the Christian 
religion. Neoplatonism flourished at Alexandria, be- 
ing established there by Philo a few years before 
the advent of Christ. We find this school bitterly 
contending against Christianity. They were Jews ; 
and the Jews who really knew the most about Christ 
have always denied his divinity and the faith built 
upon his life and teaching. Faith is the essence of 
the philosophy. Science is from God, and its name 
is faith. God is incomprehensible, but still can be 
understood somewhat by the Word. The Word is 
God's thought. The writer of the book of St. John 
in the New Testament was a ISTeoplatonist. This 
Alexandrian school framed the famous theory of the 
Trinity. Eaith was placed far above reason. With 
Proclus, 412, this school expired, and ancient philo- 



286 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

sophy conies to an end. Keligion takes its place. The 
enthusiast, dispensing with the ordinary modes of in- 
vestigation, finds his solution of the universe in reve- 
lation. Reason surrenders to faith. 

Scholasticism. This is the name given to the 
transition period of philosophy, comprising in all 
about a thousand years, or the years from 600 to 1600. 
The absolute intellectual barrenness of these centuries 
has been noticed before in other chapters of this work. 

II. MODERN PHILOSOPHY. 

1. Giordano Bruno, 1548, an Italian thinker, 
heads the list of modern philosophers, and is a wor- 
shipper of Nature. He is famous rather as a pioneer 
than because of his teaching. The real fame of re- 
establishing philosophy independent and unrestricted 
belongs to Francis Bacon, 1561. This great thinker 
has been classed rather as a scientist than as a philo- 
sopher by many, and with reason. Despite this so- 
called emancipation of philosophy, the great fact 
remains that to this day philosophy has maintained 
the position, generally speaking, of handmaid to reli- 
gion. Philosophers have been very slow and unwilling 
to publish views contrary to religious doctrines. Most 
have prosecuted their investigations with eyes con- 
stantly fixed on religious truth. We may give Bacon 
place here, however, and treat him as is customary. 
Bacon imitates Aristotle. His introduction of the 
inductive method into science has rendered his name 
immortal. Science is not mean and unworthy, is the 
lesson he taught ; and that which is most useful is 
most valuable. He did not trouble himself much 
about gods. 

2. The Cartesian School. Descartes, 1596, is the 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 287 

founder, and is noted also as a great mathematician. 
Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am, or exist) is 
his famous fundamental proposition. Analysis is his 
principle of reasoning. He begins with the infinite, 
and descends to the finite. He does not designate 
this infinite, {substantia) as God, nor does he personify 
the principle. He is a heretic, of course. Male- 
branche, 1632, is a follower of Descartes, and presents 
the same theories. 

Spinoza, 1632, is the only other famous thinker of 
this school. For his teachings he was excommuni- 
cated, and barely lived, but still a life of freedom, by 
grinding and polishing lenses. " Spit on that grave ; 
there lies Spinoza," is the comment I find on him. 
Substance is the perfect one ; all else is imperfect. 
Substance is independent, interminable, and it existed 
before thought. It is not merely thought ; it is, and 
as such cannot be described by that which is finite. 
Hence it cannot be called good, for it is goodness it- 
self, and as such is God. God has not free will ; for 
if this be so, something may be done that has not 
been accomplished. There is nothing God has not 
done. God is not personal and is not local. God 
does not make use of design, because this would re- 
quire means and time, both of which are by necessity 
finite. Individuals are non-essential. Man's thought 
is as the wave of the sea, or as a bubble on the wave. 
So far as we reach consciousness we reach God. 

3. Empiricism (Locke 1632) teaches that all knowl- 
edge comes from experience. Innate ideas are claimed. 
No principle is of universal application. Mind is at 
first an unwritten tablet. Eeligious truth is admitted. 
David Hume, 1776, is the most famous member of 
this school. He denies the reality of substance, which 
Locke admitted. He also denies causation. It is 



288 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

only succession which, we see, and we assert the re- 
lation. There is no universality and no necessity. 
Immortality and the miraculous he denied ; indeed the 
latter received its death-blow at his hands. 

Sensationism is empiricism in France. The French 
practise ; the English only preach. Condillac, 1715, 
declares that all knowledge comes through sensation. 
He recognizes God as existent. Helvetius, 1715, as- 
serts that the moral and ethical is only the customary. 
Self-interest is the principle of existence ; for if this 
is not true, theory works one way and practice the 
other. His theory was suppressed. 

4. Materialism. Voltaire, 1696, is the leader. 
His theory is simply that of sensationism recogniz- 
ing a cause ; and this cause is matter. He recognizes 
a God, though unmercifully criticising Christianity. 
All Nature proclaims a God. Vice is weakness ; re- 
ligious zeal, fanaticism. Free will is denied. His 
famous saying has proved quite true : " I have ac- 
complished more in my day than either Luther or 
Calvin." Diderot, 1750, finds the atom fundamental. 
God is an aggregate of atoms. Law and free will are 
only fancy. " Immortality is a desire to live in the 
minds of posterity." Holbach, 1770, represents the 
extreme view. There is no God and no soul. Immor- 
tality is the remembrance of posterity. Force and 
matter alone are real. 

5. Idealism. Empiricism declares that the intel- 
lect (e(/o) is simply passive ; Idealism says it is active. 
Leibnitz, 1646, called the modern Aristotle, founded 
the Eoyal Academy. The Cartesian substance was 
infinite ; here it becomes unity, the vionad. The 
universe is an aggregate of monads. The monad is 
indivisible, and therefore non-material. It is a tran- 
scendental atom. The atom is the unit of matter j 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 289 

the monad is the unit of force. This monad is or- 
ganic, and consequently is a vital force. God is the 
predominant monad, having reflecting and creating 
capacity. The ideal in deity becomes real. We have, 
on the one hand, a universe of force, of monads ; on 
the other, a universe of matter, of atoms. Souls re- 
flect the divine rather than matter. Good is incon- 
ceivable without evil. Perfect intelligence alone is 
perfect good. Creations must be less than the cre- 
ator. The moral world is like art. The shadow is 
the most important factor in art; the discord, in 
music ; so evil is the important factor in virtue. 
Without choice there is no virtue. Berkeley, 1750, 
is another exponent of this philosophy. Wolff, 1679, 
revises and amplifies the work of Leibnitz. The in- 
dividual is exalted by this philosophy quite as much 
as it is considered secondary by the Cartesian School. 
Wolff is prominent chiefly because he introduced phi- 
losophy into Germany. 

6. Critical Philosophy. This school takes 
ground between Idealism and Materialism, finding 
both extreme, though containing much truth. Kant, 
1724, asks the question fairly, Are there a priori 
elements in the mind ? He then asserts that this 
question must be answered affirmatively, offering time 
and space as examples. They are not perceived as 
results. One is an internal presumption ; the other, 
an external presumption. The intellect is spontane- 
ous, active, and non-receptive. The soul is indepen- 
dent and immortal. The understanding, he declares, 
cannot substantiate this idea while still it does exist, 
involving the a priori. Of God likewise we have an 
idea. Cosmologically, phenomena cannot give the 
universal necessity. At most they can give but a 
cause for themselves. Our world-phenomena, not 

19 



290 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

being universal, cannot give the ultimate, uncreated 
totality. Teleologically, again, he runs up against the 
same barrier. We can only prove a designer equal to 
the design in question. Having only part of the uni- 
verse, we cannot construct in the mind the creator of 
the whole universe. 

The will is automatic, because a moral law or prin- 
ciple controls us unconditionally. Motive is admitted 
as having connection with the will. The moral law 
is universal. In the world of sense, virtue and hap- 
piness conflict ; in the supersensual, they unite. This 
is the supreme good. We can only approximate this 
in our present state. Its attainment involves pro- 
gression unlimited. Here is the postulate, immor- 
tality. To reach this supreme good, ISTature, external 
and internal, must be overcome. Here is the pos- 
tulate of assistance, God. The understanding can 
master neither postulate. Morality leads to religion, 
because the highest good demands a God, — another 
postulate. Keligion absorbing morality renders all 
duties divine commands. The kingdom of God fol- 
lows ; and its objective, visible existence here is the 
Church. Eeason interprets Nature by categories par- 
taking of transcendent ideas. Transcendent judg- 
ment aids the reason. Nature is a series of organisms 
involving a cause. We cannot understand Nature 
undesigned ; nor can we substantiate the designer, 
though possessing the transcendental idea. 

Jacobi, 1743, follows Kant, and states his theistic 
idea concisely. A God demonstrated would be finite. 
A God cannot come through science. Fichte, 1762, 
Hebart, 1776, Schelling, 1775, are lesser philosophers 
in the same general theory; Hegel, 1770, completes 
the school. 

The successors of Hegel established a kind of school 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 291 

by themselves. The question of main interest was, 
Is Christianity rational ? Kant clearly proved that 
science cannot reach a God, but bridged the chasm by 
a postulate God who reveals his will. This brings in 
the element of tradition ; for revelation is but single, 
and is valid only to the one who has the experience. 
Three views were expressed. 

Erdmann, 1805, and Dorner, 1809, admit miracles 
and revelation as proved. 

Michelet, 1801, and Rosenkranz, 1805, assert that 
miracles may be proved ; whether any one has been 
proved is an open question with them. 

Strauss, 1808, and Baur, 1792, maintain that mira- 
cles are irrational, and are to be rejected as facts 
because of the lack of evidence. 

7. Existing Schools. (1) The Scottish school 
practically falls back on Kant's theory. In ^' common- 
sense " certain innate principles of knowledge exist. 
Reid, Stewart, Brown, and Hamilton, 1710-1788, are 
the principal exponents ; and they came generally to 
Kant's conclusion that a God cannot be known. God 
is created out of the mind. God is innate, and must 
be accepted without understanding. Rational criti- 
cism is not proper or admissible in this field. 

(2) Eclecticism, located in France, is a reaction 
from Materialism, and is based on Kant and the 
Scotch position. Cousin, 1792, founds the order. It 
is a transcendent philosophy, not conditional. 

(3) Positivism is another tendency located in 
France, which is practically a rejection of religious 
and philosophical ideas as progressive stages of 
thought. Philosophy is a co-ordination of all science 
that will give positive truth, which is knowledge. 
Humanity is its highest object of worship. Comte, 
1795 or 1797, is the chief supporter of the theory. He 



292 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

sets aside both philosophy and religion, finding no 
clew to the origin or destiny of the universe. Even 
causation is denied. Mathematics is valid and funda- 
mental truth absolute. 

(4) Pessimism finds the world as bad as may be. 
Schopenhauer, 1770, is a leader ; it may be added that 
he failed as an instructor, which may account for his 
ideas. Life, he asserts, is unsatisfied desire. Hart- 
man, 1840, asserts that the universe is developed 
under an unconscious providence, not personal nor 
divine. Life is rendered tolerable only by sleep and 
illusion. He is a shrewd thinker, and consistent. His 
answer to the critics consists of a collection of their 
criticisms, which are so contradictory that they de- 
stroy themselves. 

(5) Agnosticism is rather a tendency than a school. 
All knowledge is relative, and is confined to world- 
phenomena. God is unknowable. Spencer, 1820, is 
the leader, and he recognizes an infinite source of 
power, call it what you will. Fiske is a less famous 
member of the school. Keligious truth is admitted as 
valid in a general way. Stuart Mill, 1806, is ranked 
as high as Spencer himself. He denies that there is 
a God to be worshipped. He also denies causation. 
Some one has classed George Eliot, 1819, as one of 
the school, with the spiteful remark that her philoso- 
phy is as indefinite as her name. ^^ 

(6) Transcendentalism is the only school the 
United States has fostered ; and that is saying very 
little. It is really a protest against Materialism. 
Emerson, 1803, is the seer ; Margaret Fuller, the critic ; 
Theodore Parker, the preacher ; George Ripley, the 
editor ; and Amos Bronson Alcott, d. 1888, the under- 
taker. 

(7) Evolutionism is the last school to be considered, 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 293 

and it promises to be the most fruitful of all. The 
theory is simple. All things are evolved from a 
single source, or homogeneous germ. The main diffi- 
culty that troubles the critics consists in bridging 
over the gap between the animate and the inanimate. 
Darwin, J 809, is, of course, the founder. He left the 
system very incomplete. He left, however, a sugges- 
tion that may revolutionize the world of thought. 
The theory is rather scientific than theistic. All the 
later schools run rather to science. Admitting the 
theory, it is but a method ; and so we are thrown back 
as ever to the question, Whose method ? This ques- 
tion the school, if a school can be said to exist, has 
not attempted as yet to answer. 

If the patience is sufficient to endure the exhaustive 
examination of all the theories these philosophers 
have constructed to explain the universe and its rela- 
tion to a god, the judgment will invariably conclude 
that the interpreter is harder to be understood than the 
god. To any but the student all these theories appear 
in general hopelessly contradictory ; and so they are as 
to the essence and character of a god. But progress is 
clearly apparent. While the modern schools are no 
nearer a comprehension of a god, real and substantial, 
than the very oldest, still many principles of correct 
thinking have been developed and applied. This is 
the only practical progress philosophy reveals during 
the whole four thousand years of its existence ; in- 
deed, it may well be asserted that even this fruit 
itself is scientific rather than philosophical. 

Philosophy proper, involving, as it always does, 
the metaphysical extensively, is of scarcely any prac- 
tical value and utility, saving perhaps the gratification 
it yields to its devotees. Philosophy proper may be 



294 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

said to seek to render humanity godlike ; science 
seeks to furnish humanity with everything and any- 
thing that can be of use. Philosophy fails, as Kant 
has clearly demonstrated it must, simply because, 
being the research of finite man, it cannot compre- 
hend the infinite or universal, which requires infinite 
or universal experience. It is as if one should at- 
tempt to reckon the number of trees in the whole 
world from the number ascertained in a certain wood, 
beyond whose narrow and petty confines he could not 
look or traverse. Why, science assures us that Sirius 
is fifty billion miles out into space, and that probably 
thousands of stars exist that are unknown to us, be- 
cause our sight, aided by the best devices human in- 
genuity can invent, is unable to reach their distance. 
The earth is but a paltry eight thousand miles in 
diameter. Man, confined to this tiny, infinitesimal 
particle of matter, boldly asserts a complete theory 
of the whole universe. Not unreasonable is the query 
of Teufelsdrockh : " Which of your philosophical sys- 
tems is other than a dream theorem, a net quotient, 
confidently given out, where divisor and dividend are 
both unknown ? " God must laugh outright, could 
such a being exist with such capabilities, to behold 
the ludicrous actions and antics of his chosen, created 
in his image. 

Philosophy seeks what her greatest lights have ad- 
mitted she cannot understand. In the terms of an 
eloquent critic, she draws a good bow, but, like the 
hero Acestes, the arrow is aimed at the stars, and 
though there is no lack of strength or want of skill, 
the effort is simply thrown away. Acestes' arrow left 
a train of dazzling radiance, indeed, but it pierced no 
target. An endless tangle of long, mysterious words 
is about all thousands of years of philosophical study 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 295 

have given us, — words which in themselves require 
volumes of definition and commentary to explain, and 
which are as devoid of common utility and intelli- 
gibility as the most meaningless of barbarian hiero- 
glyphics. Ketrogression, instead of progression, marks 
the long history of this evanescent bauble ; and the 
reason for this is clear. In the beginning the re- 
search was physical, though i3oetic in form. The 
best of the ancients were physical investigators ; but 
their instructions were followed by metaphysical the- 
ories. The ancients were children lisping a new and 
untried and marvellous language, descriptive of world- 
phenomena ; their successors were toothless old men, 
mumbling over a dried-up gibberish of supernatural 
and metaphysical isms. That which is beautiful in 
the winning mythology of ancient Greece becomes 
hateful in the senseless, long-drawn arguments of 
scholasticism. 

As has been suggested before, modern philosophy 
is rather nominal than real. It is philosophy sepa- 
rated from metaphysics largely. All the prominent 
investigators of this century are really scientists ; and 
the aim of the whole research has generally been to 
separate the metaphysical from the supernatural. Men 
of high intellectual powers, if in youth seized with 
the inclination, soon tire of employment resembling 
the labors "of the damned in the Grecian Tartarus, 
to spin forever on the same wheel round the same 
pivot, to gape forever after the same deluding clus- 
ters, to pour water forever into the same bottomless 
buckets, to pace forever to and fro on the same weari- 
some path after the same recoiling stone." 

So many times have the pitiful arguments of natural 
theology been refuted, that repetition seems almost 
unnecessary. It is enough to say with regard to the 



296 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ontological evideDce, that it is a priori, and that its 
very first statement involves its conclusion. It 
simply takes the whole question pro confesso. Ad- 
mitting the hypotheses, the conclusions are inevitable. 
Giving the utmost weight to the cosmological evi- 
dence, including the argument from design, it would 
prove only a force or designer sufficient to make the 
world, or that limited part of the universe which is 
known to us. The argument apart from design, rely- 
ing upon a first cause, is absurd. In fact, "first 
cause'' was made a hobby of by the schoolmen, and 
it is worthy of them. Every effect is cause to some 
other effect. A first cause or a last effect would be 
simply an assumption. Every individual mind would 
find the end in a different place. Mathematically we 
reach only infinity at either end ; that is, there is a 
series of causes reaching back beyond the reflection 
of the human mind, and a series of effects running 
forward without limit. 

The arguments which are used to clothe this natural 
god with the attributes of personality, holiness, spirit- 
uality, and the other qualities, will answer just as 
well to add the attributes of badness, infinite size, 
and beauty. There is no limit to the number of 
absurd qualities it may be made to possess with just 
as much reason. The position taken now by the 
best natural theologians — indeed it is Hobson's choice 
with them, for they are forced to it — is that all these 
arguments lead only to the presumption that there is 
such a god. Of course, they make the presumption 
very strong. Yet the evidence and argument which 
they use to make this god, from beginning to end, are 
of a nature which is not permitted to be used to 
control human affairs in the courts of justice in any 
civilized country. Such evidence would not be 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 297 

admitted at all in our courts, and if it were, on the 
strength of it no jury would jGind even a verdict of 
petty larceny against an accused person. Despite this 
fact, the pitiful god of natural theology is asserted 
with all the emphasis of absolute certainty, so that 
until recently to deny its validity was to seal one's 
own fate, and even now in some communities social 
ostracism awaits him who dares to follow the dictates 
of reason. 

Man's idea of a god is just in proportion to his 
capacity ; it is a measure of his culture and education. 
To the first inhabitants of the world, there seemed to 
exist utter lack of regularity and order. Heat and 
cold seemed merely to happen, and the light of day 
itself appeared capricious, and the very ground un- 
stable. Gradually some kind of order was recognized, 
and simple laws and principles understood. As more 
was observed these principles became more extensive. 
As the result of education they are even more broadly 
conceived now than ever, and are constantly receiving 
wider application. Men are now learning that the 
difference between themselves and other animals and 
things is only a difference of degree and capacity. 
When man knows what is really good for him, he 
will choose it; when he cannot perceive this, some 
chance or principle will guide him, perhaps aright, 
perhaps not. If he makes mistakes, he will profit by 
experience. It is only from ignorance that men 
seriously discuss the possibility of membership in 
ten universities. As knowledge is gained, it is per- 
fectly plain that one may hold honors from a hun- 
dred universities and colleges, if sufficiently popular, 
fortunate, and learned. " A university is a body ; and 
while a body may have many members, a member 
cannot have several bodies. This is monstrous. The 



298 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

member would be the body, and the bodies or 
universities the member, and altogether it would be 
a scandal to learned scholasticism." The holy Saint 
Thomas might have stood aghast at the idea of mak- 
ing himself a member of ten universities, — his 
ignorance only is to be pitied. A modern professor 
or politician finds it easy to acquire unlimited mem- 
bership of such kind ; and the modern youth easily 
secures membership in one, if a good stroke oar or 
end rush. 

But we are finally forced to the conclusion that 
human thought is not limited to tins life. The mani- 
festations of higher power lie about on all sides ; 
and in all ages and in all nations humanity has 
believed in the existence of some ruling intelligence, 
generally personified. But the unanimity ceases at 
this point. Polytheism and monotheism alike have 
their believers, and the qualities and attributes and 
relations of these gods vary almost as the individual 
varies. Eevelation is asserted and likewise disputed ; 
moral government finds its believers and its rejecters ; 
and personality itself is quite as much in question. 
Concerning all these theories the vast majority of 
men have always been in error. 

The Christian god is a pitiable idol. There is no 
crime in the decalogue of which it is not guilty. 
There is no crime attributable to humanity so out- 
rageous as many that it is said to have perpetrated. 
It is strange that a civilized and intelligent man can 
worship such an uncivilized and monstrous idol. 
It does not appreciate honesty and integrity in the 
least. Faith and cruelty are the only virtues it 
knows. Even our human criminal law always recog- 
nizes intent as the essence of crime ; divine law does 
away entirely with intent. Innocence and ignorance 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 299 

are no excuse. Ucbelief, though of that which was 
not uuderstood, is the warrant of eternal punishment, 
the certain token of heinous crime. What an un- 
worthy idol proves this god ! Why, even a dog can 
distinguish between being stumbled over and being 
kicked ! But the Christian god has not the fine sensi- 
bilities even of a miserable cur. It is better, as 
Bacon says, to have no opinion of God than one which 
is unworthy of him. 

It may be noticed right here that it was this same 
Bacon who, with his application of the inductive 
method of reasoning, inflicted the first crushing blow 
on theology. He demonstrated the fallacy of begin- 
ning with principles which are to be assumed as truths, 
though incomprehensible. The very source of theo- 
logical power lay in this method of argument. From 
the time of Bacon on, the theologians have been 
driven from one position after another, until their re- 
treat has assumed the character of an ignominious 
flight. Indeed, theologians have for some time ceased 
to rely upon reasonable argument. IsTone will attempt 
a discussion, unless the whole conclusion is admitted 
from the outset. It is not denied that induction fails 
absolutely to validate the conclusions of natural the- 
ology. The a jpriori presumption is the only resource 
of the system. Granting the validity of this argu- 
ment is simply giving up the whole case. All that is 
required is to deduce logical inferences from that 
which is first assumed, as, for instance, supernatural 
communication and revelation. Even the theologians 
themselves, in assuming this a 'priori ground, admit 
that it is unintelligible and beyond comprehension. 
But credulity is converted into an honor, and faith is 
divine. Deduction tends to multiply assumed laws 
and original principles j induction tends to diminish 



300 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

them. Great commendation is due Bacon for his bold 
stand, praise in proportion to the contumely and in- 
sult that have been heaped upon him. And it is not 
the least hopeful sign of modern times that he is re- 
ceiving this recognition of his services so long overdue. 

A simple statement of the conclusions of the two 
methods will illustrate sufficiently the systems. Con- 
science has ever been a ground of serious discussion. 
How is right distinguished from wrong ? The induc- 
tive school says, By association through the relation 
of social causes. Conscience, says Spencer, is the re- 
sult of accumulated experiences of utility gradually 
organized and inherited. The deductive school assert 
that this distinction of right and wrong is inhereut, 
beyond analyzation ; in short, it is an a priori presump- 
tion. The former system permits development ; the 
latter really denies it. The one admits the under- 
standing, and is consistent with reason ; the other 
excludes all reasoning, and denies the validity of intel- 
lectual judgment. 

Those who have held to the a priori view have 
never been content to discuss simply and reasonably 
the proposition of the other school, but have always 
resorted to scurrility and abuse, ever attacking the 
motives and avoiding the reasoning, gaining more ap- 
plause by such personal abuse than they could have 
gained by fair argument. The reason why they could 
thus impose upon the world is simply because in the 
almost universal ignorance their position was accepted 
without question, and when any one became so rash as 
to gainsay its validity, their power enabled them to 
suppress his exposures, and even to take his life. 
The reason is that ignorance was in the ascendency. 
Knowledge was almost hopelessly lost in the mist 
of all but universal superstition. And tliis cloud of 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 301 

superstition and ignorance is but just beginning to 
lift even now. Prejudice to this day is stronger than 
reason in almost any disputed field, whether of 
science, art, literature, or theology. But falsity will 
out, only give it time. The ordinary, the uniform, the 
regular, is science ; the abnormal and the supernatural 
is superstition. 

The time will yet come when the distinction be- 
tween the animate and the inanimate shall be proved 
a fallacy. Evolution has no gulf to bridge over. The 
chasm does not exist at all. Philosophers cross the 
bridge before they come to it. No one of them can 
point out the dividing line between life and death, 
the organic and the inorganic. Organic and inorganic 
are but nominal, and in no true sense real. Every- 
thing is life in this whole universe. There is abso- 
lutely no death and no dead matter. The very stones 
under our feet live and breathe, and love and hate, 
weep and rejoice ; and even they shall in time rise and 
mutiny, in very truth, at the fallacy of a dead world. 
Wonderful indeed would it be, if we, Avho cannot now 
comprehend the constant life-activity of what is actu- 
ally about us, should reach a perfect understanding 
of the great and infinite universe, of which vastly the 
greater part is absolutely unknown to us. Yet we 
have the spectacle in every age of a body of men 
" divinely taught," alleging that they are " divinely 
called," who positively assert that they comprehend 
all, and apparently believe their assertions. The 
divine '^ calling " of most of them urges them to warn, 
and generally to curse, those who cannot or will not 
accept their views. Ignorance and self-assertion are 
ever allied. This class of men has lost a vast amount 
of ground, and irrevocably, during the present cen- 
tury. The intellect first threw off its allegiance ; the 



302 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

affections and prejudices followed rather slowly ; and 
without these, fashion and policy have but a slender 
footing. 

All these various philosophies have been accepted 
and rejected by succeeding ages. Others will un- 
doubtedly rise to supplant those now in vogue, only 
to be followed by still another set. At one time they 
seem infinite wisdom itself ; at another, infinite fool- 
ishness. Yet at all times there is a great undercur- 
rent of truth which ever holds its steady course, 
irresistible, never-ceasing, though at times it sinks 
deeper below the surface and seems lost. The new 
philosophies will have the pleasure, as their prede- 
cessors have had, of demonstrating the ignorance of 
the past. There is something grand and beautiful in 
these partial and faulty victories of truth over error. 
Perhaps in the exhilaration which these partial vic- 
tories induce, lie the real source and promise of new 
acquisitions of the precious metal of truth. Knowl- 
edge and education — that is, the means of gaining 
knowledge — are the grandest of world-phenomena. 
What a delightful revelation awaits the thoughtful 
infant of to-day, if he live to the age of fourscore 
and ten ! 

There may still be that in the world, not to say in 
the universe, which will ever elude the mental grasp 
of humanity, just as in the dim twilight of Tartarus 
the fond Grecian mother, whose sacred form is wasted 
to a fleeting shadow by grief for the loved and lost, 
yielding to no disease but the absence of her cher- 
ished son, eludes the physical grasp of the ardent 
Ulysses. But whether this be so or not, one thing is 
sure : some uniform succession of law or principle 
regulates the universe. If the life it bears, itself in 
all its forms participating in this infinite power, fall 



PHILOSOPHY AND GOD. 303 

within the line of its proper exercise, it is fulfilling 
its destiny or purpose in the highest degree ; if it fall 
without, its manifestation is quickly changed, though 
the life is not lost and cannot be annihilated. Not 
all the prayer and sacrifice of saints, or insult and 
cursing of demons, can change in the least degree 
this ultimate and infinite power, call it what you will. 
Nature is in every particular infinite art, unknown, it 
may well be, to man. Chance is but direction un- 
comprehended ; and discord but harmony too sweet 
and perfect for human ear to catch. 

The infinite ruler of the universe has loftier themes 
and higher aims to take his attention than mere hu- 
man affairs. Human life, right enough in its place, 
is only an infinitesimal part of universal life, and can 
claim but a corresponding part of infinite direction. 
They are but sham gods that sit on thrones in human 
shapes, profoundly engaged in the busy idleness of 
controlling mankind. God does not command human- 
ity in any such way. He does not threaten and rage 
and storm at human obstinacy. He is not jealous of 
men. He does not make creeds or commandments. 
His voice is not limited to the winds and the thun- 
der. He speaks in no uncertain way in every bird 
and beast and living thing. His eloquence is fully as 
great in those things men call dead. He is the God 
of the living, not the God of the dead. He is Life. 

The Christian god who cannot or will not distin- 
guish between the just and the unjust, nor punish 
insult to his holy name, will concern himself little 
about the prayers and sacrifices of those who claim 
to be his elect, but to whom he gives no sign. For 
the enlightenment of such there is a pretty fable, old 
as time itself, for all one can tell, of a poor man who 
prayed day and night without ceasing for wealth. 



304 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

His god was a miserable wooden idol, set up in a 
prominent place in his house. With all his prayers 
he became constantly poorer and poorer, until one 
day, in a rage, he seized it by the legs and dashed it 
to pieces on the floor, when hundreds of shining gold 
pieces rolled out in all directions, raising to his lips 
the exclamation : " What a fool I have been to wor- 
ship a miserable god who yields to force what he 
would not grant to prayer ! " 

Thousands of men have treated the modern idol in 
the same way, and thus have revealed to their long- 
ing eyes priceless treasure, far more valuable than 
gold and silver and precious stones, fully realizing 
the eternal promise of him who set the example at 
the very beginning of the modern era, and who suf- 
fered a cruel death for his bold independence. Intel- 
lectual freedom is beyond price. God is spirit ; and 
they that worship aright, worship in spirit and truth. 
The infinite spirit-power of the universe is no man 
of giant stature, clad in shining robes, with flowing 
whiskers and noble mien, wielding a golden sceptre, 
at the inclination of which thousands of saints in 
white prostrate themselves and sing eternal praises. 
Such gods are idols, the creations of superstition. 
The injunction to refrain from eating of the fruit 
of the tree of knowledge is sufficient ground to seal 
the condemnation of any god. Humanity has but to 
seize its petty, contemptible god by the legs and dash 
its head against a stone, which stone may be called 
education, and from its dead body will roll an intel- 
lectual independence that shall enrich the world. 



AGNOSTICISM. 305 



VIII. 
AGNOSTICISM. 

" There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds." 

A LONGING for jtrutli is a longing for righteous- 
ness, for truth, and righteousness are one. It 
was nothing more nor less than an encouragement 
of scepticism which Christ intended when he said, 
"Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after 
righteousness." Christ was the greatest agnostic, 
infidel, or unbeliever the world has ever seen; and, 
curiously enough, the greatest mistake his successors 
in infidelity and heresy have made is in ignoring their 
very leader. Christ was no impostor : he was an in- 
fidel, an unbeliever in Judaism ; brother of Voltaire, 
Paine, and Ingersoll, only greater than any. He was 
more honored, too, than any, for they crucified him. 
He suffered death as a blasphemer ; impiety was the 
crime he committed. He proclaimed freedom of wor- 
ship ; his religion had no creed, was no orthodoxy, 
required no priest. It was not the religion of the 
Jew; it was the religion of humanity. 

On the other hand, the Jews who condemned 
Christ to death were not bad men, not at all, at 
heart. They were honest, and lived up to the light 
which they had. They were the men of honor of 
their times, noted for their learning and respected 
for their morality and piety. That high-priest who 

20 



306 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

rent his garments at hearing the blasphemous words, 
was assuredly as much shocked and horrified as the 
high-priests of to-day are at the impious words of 
modern infidels. Suppose the American Board, for 
instance, had lived some eighteen or nineteen centu- 
ries ago, born and bred to the Jewish faith, would it 
have shown the moderation of Roman Pilate ? Would 
it not rather out-Herod Herod himself ? It is no tri- 
fling matter to expose the shams of society ; still more 
dangerous is it to denounce its honest convictions and 
deride its established customs and manners. 

In the world of mechanicaj. invention it is quite 
generally the rule that the original projector, though 
failing to develop his idea perfectly, secures his full 
measure of praise. His successors, though applying 
the newly discovered principle with wonderful suc- 
cess to the incalculable benefit of mankind, acquire 
but a secondary fame. But in the sphere of intellec- 
tual discovery the rule seems to be reversed. Appli- 
cation of theories seems to win greater applause — or 
abuse, which is the same in its early stages — than ori- 
gination. It is unfortunate that this is so. The real 
guide to the right rarely receives popular recognition 
as such; some follower, who takes the direction al- 
ready indicated, stumbles across the prize and wins all 
the honor. It is a more difficult thing to project and 
build a road than to walk in one already laid out. 
After the fort is carried, there are many brave enough 
to plant the standard of victory on the highest turret ; 
but it is a very different matter to find men willing to 
rush into the breach before the surrender. 

The application of a new idea certainly does often 
require rare courage and boldness. When the two 
qualities are combined in one, we have a real god. It 
demanded a good deal more intellect than most people 



AGNOSTICISM. 307 

appreciate to seize upon the absurdity of the old Jew- 
ish ceremonial religion ; the courage required to ex- 
pose all its cant and hypocrisy and imposture, closely 
interwoven as it was in the implicit faith of many 
generations of a people strong in prejudice, is readily 
apprehended. To tear aside the sheltering veil from 
a religious faith that has become firmly established in 
the hearts of mankind ; to denounce a faith universally 
accepted, and possessed of immense power and incal- 
culable riches ; to say to it, " You are a delusion, you 
are a lie," and to say it openly, is, in truth, a rather 
bold undertaking. To go over the evidence of a great 
and prevailing faith carefully and in detail, to con- 
clude inwardly that it is deceptive and wholly unde- 
serving of credence, and then silently to abjure the 
faith, requires a good deal of intellectual ability and 
originality. No wonder the world stood aghast at the 
marvellous audacity of him who dared to write on the 
wall before the eyes of all men : " Mene, Mene, Tekel 
Upharsin." 

It is by no means strange that the masses of people, 
blinded by prejudice and bound by custom, fail to un- 
derstand such an exposure, even though it is complete 
and beyond dispute. Of what effect are the numerous 
exposures of spiritualism upon its faithful followers ? 
Few will care to notice such exposures at all for years. 
Those that do take notice and understand rest easy in 
the thought that the new idea may be all right, but 
the old faith is good enough for them. Those who 
are satisfied with darkness will care little for light. 
Indeed, a superstition which has become a part of hu- 
man nature by early training and later education does 
not lose its power even when detected. A supersti- 
tion, moreover, which thinks itself easy to be borne, 
whose " yoke is easy " and whose '^ burden is light," 



308 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

is the hardest of all to overcome. A nation of slaves 
will always boast of the clemency of its masters. The 
judgment will for years mock such servitude before 
the will asserts its freedom. The experience of all 
ages has proved the impotence of gods ; the weakness 
and folly, not to say degradation, of a worship of idols 
the light of reason has exposed almost from the first ; 
and yet, despite these repeated exposures of the unre- 
ality of the one and the depravity of the other, neither 
can ev^en now be said to be without influence. 

Eeligious systems have generally undertaken too 
much, and their failure to maintain part of their as- 
sertions opens up a fatal crack into which the wedge 
of criticism slips, which finally, driven home, splits 
the whole system asunder. Applying the idea to 
Christianity, once it was asserted that the sun moves 
round the earth, and a denial of the theory was de- 
clared to be a denial of the Bible and Christianity ; 
but soon it was proved that the theory was false, and 
then Christianity had to shift around to other ground, 
with not a little loss of prestige. The wedge had en- 
tered, to say the least. The rejection of the Ptolemaic 
theory was the prelude to a denial of transubstantia- 
tion and the resurrection. 

Detection in a single lie naturally prejudices the 
whole testimony of a witness. The experience of the 
simple missionary among the Fiji Islanders will illus- 
trate the practical effect of detected error. The zeal- 
ous preacher had just narrated the story of the creation 
of Eve, and as proof of the story added that ever since 
woman has had one more rib than man. The good 
soul had heard his old nurse declare that the state- 
ment was true. But the cannibal, whose knowledge 
of human anatomy was eminently practical, had some 
doubts on that point, and brought a man and a woman 



AGNOSTICISM. 309 

before the missionary, and requested Mm to count 
their ribs. Careful and re^Deated trials revealed the 
same number, and, with considerable confusion and 
much stammering, the holy man began by saying that 
though he had made a mistake as to the number of 
ribs, still the first woman was undoubtedly made from 
a rib of the first man. " But," said the savage, " you 
come to me with a story which you say was revealed 
by God to you, and I have already proved that half 
of it is a lie. How, then, can you expect that I will 
believe the other half ? " At these words the poor man 
was seized, and soon the savages were greedily pick- 
ing his bones. A greater illustration of the practical 
working of this principle in Christianity may well be 
given. For centuries the Christian religion was openly 
and boldly staked on the working of miracles. "If 
ye will not believe me, believe the works which I do," 
was the open challenge. The power of working mira- 
cles was universally ascribed to saints and prophets, 
from the beginning clear down through the Middle 
Ages. Miracles were of daily occurrence. The litera- 
ture of the Middle Ages, and even that of the seven- 
teenth century, is full of instances of this supernatural 
power. James I., of England, was a firm believer in 
the divine right of kings. "As it is atheism and 
blasphemy to dispute what God can do, so it is high 
contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can 
do, or to say that the king cannot do this or that ! " 
James's brother Charles, already mentioned, is said to 
have healed, by simply touching them, upwards of 
one hundred thousand persons. Not only Charles be- 
lieved he could heal a distemper by simply touching 
the person afSicted, but the people believed it. Thus 
for hundreds of years Christianity with its open chal- 
lenge met with no effective exposure. This was left 



310 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

for the eighteenth century. Soon after this time the 
whole claim was denied, and proved unfounded in 
fact. The result is simply our present religious con- 
dition. We found the system false in one part, and 
we deny the rest. We deny the infallibility of Scrip- 
ture and Church, divine revelation, the divinity of 
Christ, and the resurrection of the bod}^ 

I am not altogether sure that the idea involved in 
this principle was not expressed away back thousands 
of years ago, in the Old Testament. It will be re- 
membered that the Israelites, in their famous battle 
with the Philistines, brought the ark of their god 
down into the camp, with the hope and expectation 
of its bringing them victory in the doubtful engage- 
ment which was about to ensue. The holy prophet 
narrates the issue with startling keenness. When the 
battle was lost, owing to the profanation, behold, the 
ark of God itself was taken ! One cannot help feeling 
that there is a moral here. 

After a few repetitions of this process of enlighten- 
ment, during which Christianity was driven from one 
position to another, it finally assumed the never-failing 
argument of pointing to its past, and boasting of what 
it had accomplished. And this is its great present 
defence. It assumes a tragic attitude, and begs for 
mercy. "Have respect for my venerable age," it says, 
"which has been filled up with an uninterrupted suc- 
cession of pious deeds. Although I am antiquated, 
do not attempt to draw off my votaries ; although I 
am an impostor, remember that I am a pious fraud, 
and protect my dotage out of regard for my glorious 
past." Even as a pauper its treacherous traits remain. 
It points with pride to its virtues, but never admits 
an error. The bag it carries in front is packed full 
and running over, while the bag at its back hangs 



AGNOSTICISM. 311 

limp and empty. But it is best to refuse its appeal 
firmly, though without malice. Humanity can well 
afford to assert its freedom without a display of spite, 
for after all the servitude was self-imposed. 

Scepticism, in its best sense, and democracy are 
the characteristic features of this century. Few peo- 
ple appreciate the great debt we owe to this spirit of 
scepticism ; for democracy is, after all, but one of its 
expressions. It has entered into all forms of knowl- 
edge ; it has led scientific research ; it has actually 
revolutionized every field of scientific investigation ; 
it has not only denied the ancient theories, but has 
proved them false beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
Ancient truths are shown to be fallacies in all spheres 
of investigation. Christianity itself it has changed to 
a mere form. The Bible is no longer believed, even 
by the faithful, with the active and sympathetic faith 
of the past. Not long ago President Eliot of Har- 
vard University made an extended tour of the West. 
Soon after his return, the following significant notice 
appeared in the papers, which speaks volumes in its 
three lines : — 

" At the college conference meeting next week, instead of 
the lecture on the Bible, an address will be given by President 
Eliot on ' Harvard and the West.' " 

But a century or two ago the Bible was the 
standard of reference on all questions of every-day 
life, religious, political, and social. Indeed, it is the 
regret of the clergy of this age that it has passed out 
of daily life, and is thought of only on Sunday. The 
ardent dogmatist, aghast at the dissoluteness of the 
age, thought he found in the ways of the Israelites a 
divine precedent for exterminating the evil that was 
rife, and a precedent which it was his duty to follow. 



312 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Royalty found in its pages that resistance to tlie 
king's wishes was not only nnwise, but absolutely 
sinful. Mothers named their children from it, in the 
hope that the patron saint would leave some impress 
on their minds. Its simplicity and clearness were 
such that all might read, and every one was sure he 
understood it. A Biblical lecture to be set aside for 
" Harvard and the West " ! Alas, we have fallen 
from the clear-sighted wisdom of those days. 

The modern church, in all its protestant forms, is 
itself but a heresy and a schism. This is a truism 
which still is little realized, being quietly concealed. 
Unitarianism, indeed, is afc times referred to as a 
modern heresy; and yet the cause of true religion 
can never repay the debt it owes to the courageous 
stand of this sect. The leaders in religious thought 
are called heretics and atheists, and every other 
imaginable abusive epithet is applied to them, not be- 
cause they deny the existence of a god, but because 
they deny the reality of the present god. I doubt if 
an atheist, so called, can be named who denies ab- 
solutely all theism. On the contrary, atheists have 
usually held peculiarly strong theistic views, denying 
the prevailing gods from very righteousness itself. 
We call a person an atheist who does not accept our 
god, or acquiesce in our particular idea of the infinite 
controlling power in the universe. Every age, almost 
every generation, has its own peculiar and charac- 
teristic conception of this force in Nature. Every age 
cannot be right in its theory ; and no especial reason 
can be urged why our own should, among the count- 
less number, alone have solved the mystery. The 
analogy — strong theological argument, by the way — 
is to the contrary. Sceptics or agnostics of all times 
have denied the reality of a personal god. The 



AGNOSTICISM. 313 

atheistic mind finds God an abstract, a force ; not 
a concrete, a form. God is rather infinite Love, or 
infinite Goodness, than an omnipotent, omniscient 
man. 

That agnosticism which has been classed with the 
philosophies differs somewhat from the agnosticism 
here under consideration. The tendency of the 
philosophical idea is to pronounce the creative 
principle of the universe beyond comprehension. It 
is unknowable philosophically. Here the idea is that 
it is unknown practically. This is a distinction not 
without a difference. To the enlightened believer in 
evolution — and the modern agnostic, at all events, 
certainly is such — nothing is impossible. Evolution 
does not know the word "impossible." With God 
and evolution all things are possible. 

There is nothing new in the idea of agnosticism. 
On the contrary, it is as old as time itself. It is 
clearly traceable as far back as the earliest known 
literature. The greatest author of the Old Testament, 
whoever he may have been, gives perfect expression 
to the view. Mr. Huxley himself has not better 
stated it. There is indeed a limit where the " proud 
waves " are stayed. We have not yet entered into 
the springs of the sea, nor walked in the search of 
the depth ; the gates of death have not been opened, 
and the doors of the shadow of death are still fast ; 
the treasures of the snow with its beautiful crystals 
are unknown ; the parting of light scattering the east- 
wind, and the ways of the lightning are unrevealed. 
Who is father to the rain, or who has begotten the 
drops of dew ? In whose womb were the ice of winter 
and the hoary frosts conceived ? We have not bound 
the sweet influence of Pleiades, nor loosed the bands 
of Orion ; Mazzaroth unbidden by man announces him- 



314 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

self in his season, and Arcturus and his sons roam 
nnguided by man through the firmament. The goodly 
plumes of the peacock are no gift of our understand- 
ing ; the strength and glory of the horse is a mystery 
unrevealed to man ; human wisdom will scarcely bid 
the hawk to fly and stretch her wings to the south, 
or the eagle to soar northward and build his nest 
among the clouds. 

Erom the time of the ancient Scriptural writer, this 
idea has been expressed by the wisest men of all ages. 
Greek and Eoman alike have clearly admitted their 
ignorance of the secret of the world. Wise men of 
all times frankly admit that they do not understand 
the mysterious life about them, just as the ignorant 
of all times boastfully declare that tliey know it all. 
There is nothing so positive in this world as igno- 
rance, and its very certainty prevents it from becom- 
ing wiser. The fool has indeed said in his heart, 
^' There is no God ; " and again, taking the opposite 
extreme, he has boldly asserted that there is a God, 
and has minutely described his actions and even 
painted his features. 

Agnosticism is rather a negative tendency than a 
positive belief. It is no theory of philosophy ; it is 
philosophy itself, love of wisdom. The acquisition of 
knowledge is its faith ; its works are applications of 
knowledge for the highest good and enlightenment of 
humanity. Without creed and without dogma, bound 
only to the loving service of man, its doctrine is as 
broad as the world. Its hope is unlimited in time 
and space, boundless as the universe, immeasurable as 
infinity itself. Evolution is infinite. 

Unitarianism is its modern or Christian expression. 
Abandoning the senseless theories of Christianity, it 
aspires to know and seeks to imitate Christ. This 



AGNOSTICISxM. 315 

sect has exerted a wonderfully broadening influence 
upon the other sects, which still cling to the dogmatic 
doctrines of scholastic Christianity, and in time it 
will pervade all the denominations. True religion is 
not confined to orthodoxy. Men have the best right 
to live in accordance with the dictates of their indi- 
vidual reason. Conscience is limited to no sect, but 
is as varied as the individual. The only creed per- 
missible to the agnostic is truth ; and truth has not 
yet become an absolute certainty fully and irrevoca- 
bly defined in any field. This creed depends upon 
science, which is in a state of constant progression. 
The truth of yesterday becomes false to-day. It is 
best not to be too sure of ourselves or our knowl- 
edge. To be willing to learn is the sine qua non^ 
of wisdom. 

It is by no means strange that such a belief is un- 
popular among those who set up their opinions as 
absolute truth, and who claim to possess absolute and 
certain knowledge. To such people, enthusiastic as 
they are in their faith and sure that it will abide, the 
doubter and investigator appears wilfully and mali- 
ciously obstinate. They have themselves long since 
abandoned doubt. With them even hesitation is sin. 
How can such a person ever entertain the idea that 
lie himself is the perverse and obstinate one ? It is 
simply impossible ! Infallibility beginning to doubt 
is absurd ! 

But the idea runs even farther than this. Hesita- 
tion among the faithful is sin; but actual doubt is 
heinous. Consequently, freethinkers are bidden to 
conceal their views and play the hypocrite. They 
are attacked, and then the adversary with his bundle 
of texts bids them hold their peace and bear all 
1 " Essential ; " literally, " without which not." 



316 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

opposition in silence. " If your judgment really does 
tell you that our faith is false, oh, for the love of 
mercy, do not breathe it to one of these simple souls 
in the faith ! Because, if you should by any chance 
convince one, what a terrible condemnation awaits 
him that shall ' teach men so ' ! " This is a delight- 
fully impersonal way of putting it. Christians never 
judge their fellow-men. " Judge not that ye be not 
judged," they serve to the letter ; but the whole spirit 
of the command is lost. The result is simple and 
natural ; the Church becomes militant. The honor of 
God is in its keeping. Shall it fail of its trust ? The 
old cry of heresy and atheism is heard, and the reli- 
gious press becomes hysterical over the blasphemous 
teachings of infidels. The same old stories are 
shrieked out in the same old language, but scarcely 
with the same old effect. The popular attitude has 
become passive. More or less curiosity is at times 
exhibited, it is true ; but the enthusiasm is left to 
a comparatively few individuals, most of whom are 
clergymen. 

To give any literary work, almost, a touch of scep- 
ticism is to insure its success, regardless of its intrin- 
sic worth. This success may be but ephemeral, but 
surely it cannot be altogether ignored. Within a few 
years a striking example of this fact occurred, when 
a novel, written by an absolutely unknown author, 
created a perfect furore among the intelligent people 
of the two greatest nations of the world. This little 
incident is not without significance. It means simply 
this : the great mass of educated people of this gen- 
eration is inclined to scepticism and to a rejection of 
revealed Christianity. There is a popular recognition 
of the fact that Christianity has served its purpose in 
its present form, and that the Church in blindly ad- 



AGNOSTICISM. 317 

hering to the traditional belief is out of harmony with 
the times. If anything beyond the statement of the 
fact were needed before, the wholesale creed revision 
that is at present under advisement, to say nothing of 
the trials for heresy, would convince the most stupid. 
Dr. Lyman Abbott in a recent lecture used the 
following words, which need no comment, coming as 
they do from a strictly orthodox clergyman : — 

" In the past this Bible has been regarded as without error. 
Every sentence, and every word in every sentence, and every 
syllable in every word were regarded as the product of inspi- 
ration. We have thought it an authority on theology, and 
on almost every subject of human knowledge, so that there 
was no error or mistake in it. But there are very few who 
hold this opinion now. They think they do ; but if they will 
consider a little where this opinion will lead them, they will 
quickly see that they do not. 

" In the first chapter of Genesis we find that the world was 
made in six days. All geology is mistaken. The day is lim- 
ited by the rising and the setting of the sun; and we shall 
have a theological o])inion of the creation for Sunday and a 
geological opinion for week days. We go against the Biblical 
institutions of slavery and bigamy and circumcision. We have 
abolished slavery and bigamy, and we say that baptism has 
taken the place of circumcision by a divine decree. The 
whole system of sacrifices we have abandoned. The man who 
thinks he believes in the infallibility of the Bible turns to 
moral law. He takes the Ten Commandments ; they stand as 
moral standards. He knows they are not. He knows a man 
may keep every one of the Ten Commandments and yet be 
not admitted to decent society in ISTew York ; and the civilized 
standards of the nineteenth century in New York are not too 
high for Christian living. He opens the Bible at a Psalm 
which asks God not to forgive, and then to the Sermon on the 
Mount, which prays God to forgive all sinners, and he cannot 
reconcile them. Let us be true to ourselves in this matter. 
Such things as these confront us, if we think. 



318 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

" A minister ought to be sincere. I do not believe the Bible 
is infallible. I do not think it can be an infallible book. I do 
not believe anybody believes it to be an infallible book. For 
a book to be infallible, means that the author should be infal- 
lible, his means of knowledge infallible, and what he writes 
infallible ; the person who copies it infallible, and that copy 
infallible ; the translator infallible, and the translation infal- 
lible, and we who read it infallible. iNTow, we do not believe 
these things. We may believe Moses was infallible, but we 
do not believe his copyist and translators were infallible and 
ourselves infallible." 

But it will be said that this is not scepticism or 
agnosticism : so strange is the power of a name ! 
Agnosticism is, in current opinion, synonymous with 
atheism ; and atheism — holy horror itself — cannot 
find words strong enough to express its meaning ! All 
the bitterness and hatred and intolerance of who 
knows how many years is concentrated in that one 
word. To the mind of one born and bred in the 
Christian faith, an atheist is the incarnation of all 
that is horrible and despicable in life. I doubt if hu- 
man language has adequate terms to express in lim- 
ited space the thought which this word sets in motion 
in the mind of orthodoxy. Certain it is, orthodoxy 
can never find words abusive and vile enough to ap- 
ply to those who incline to the idea. And yet this 
body of men, very small one or two centuries ago, 
and hardly worth considering in antiquity, has ever 
borne all the contumely and disgrace heaped upon it 
with a sublime patience and humility easily surpass- 
ing the heroism of the early Christians, and actually 
rivalling the example of their leader, Christ himself. 

To suffer death is not the worst calamity in this 
world, and even the torture of the rack fails to reach 
the most exquisite pain. Thousands yearly seek 



AGNOSTICISM. 319 

death, one by one, glad to throw down the burden 
of life, too weary longer to continue the toil. The 
early Christians rushed to certain death in crowds at 
times, and actually smiled and laughed and sang in 
torture. Mere bodily sensations yield under great 
pressure to the control of the mind, so that under 
certain conditions the most torturing pain becomes 
imperceptible. But the mind has no such refuge; 
its pain cannot be soothed. Such has been the un- 
told mortal agony of many great and gifted men, the 
lights of the world. Where will you find a nobler 
example of self-restraint and moderation constantly 
and persistently maintained, though at times so sorely 
tried as to waste away the very body, than that which 
unbelievers in prevailing religious faiths have shown 
in their clear, single-minded exposures of religion, er- 
ror, and crime, fighting single-handed, without sword 
or weapon of any kind, content if permitted to speak, 
satisfied if given a hearing ? 

In no other field is such an example of disinterested 
love for mankind possible ; for he who undertakes 
such a task begin's a work which can never bring him 
a reward from his fellow-men, but, on the contrary, is 
absolutely certain to call down upon him disgrace and 
obloquy. The inward approval of the conscience is 
the only comfort he can have. If one is inclined to 
look lightly upon this, and consider it rather fancy than 
fact, let him but read the pages of history which trace 
the growth of human civilization, and pause over the 
innumerable obstacles that have vainly been thrown 
in the way of education, and ponder a moment over 
the dogged obstinacy of minds that would not be con- 
vinced, the persistent blindness of eyes that would 
not see, and the unnatural dulness of ears that would 
not hear. Such a retrospect, indeed, will take one 



320 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

back to Galilee itself, even to the " Man of Sorrows." 
The agony of the cross is ecliiosed by the many lonely 
vigils by the lake-side, and the frequent wandering 
among the hills about Jerusalem. 

The accusations made against the liberal-minded 
are just as true and just as false as was the charge 
of blasphemy against Christ. If atheism and infidel- 
ity mean a rejection of ideas worn out and past ser- 
vice, then the accusation is true ; but if it mean a 
denial of the infinite one, and utter negation of all 
moral principle, the charge is brought against the 
wrong persons. There can be no doubt that Christ 
was guilty of blasphemy according to the Jewish in- 
terpretation of the word. He said he was the son of 
God, and this was blasphemy in itself ; but it is not 
atheism nor infidelity, and the Jews were shrewd 
enough to see it and govern themselves accordingly. 
The charge of infidelity is no more applicable to one 
who differs from the opinions of the majority of his 
contemporaries in their belief in Christianity, than it 
is to the accusers themselves because they reject the 
opinions of their ancestors or of the heathen. Ma- 
caulay wittil}^ observes that a man ought no more to 
be called an apostate because of free-thinking, than he 
ought to be called an Oriental traveller because he is 
always going round from west to east with the globe 
and everything that is upon it. But such terms are 
applied without much reason ; they are born of preju- 
dice, and kept alive by a combination of prejudice and 
custom. The only unfortunate feature about these 
words is the fact that their meaning is never settled, 
but changes with the ages. The apostate and infidel 
of a few centuries ago would quite generally be a 
very narrow-minded modern Christian. The charge 
of apostasy is even now at times brought against Uni- 



AGNOSTICISM. 321 

tarians, but the time is surely coming when the sect 
shall receive peculiar honor. It is well to give full 
measure of praise, though tardy, to the wise men of 
the past who dared attack the very stronghold of 
prejudice and ignorance. 

The dishonor which these men bear is but for a 
time. Even now indications are not wanting of a 
better appreciation. It must, however, be remem- 
bered that prejudice is nowhere stronger and more 
unreasonable than in religion, — than in the Chris- 
tian religion. Even in purely scientific fields it is 
by no means wanting. It is said that when Dr. 
Boylston in 1721 performed the first experiment in 
inoculation for small-pox in Boston, a mob of en- 
raged citizens paraded the streets for days with halt- 
ers, prepared to hang him Avherever he might be 
found. All the learned doctors opposed the practice, 
and the clergymen saw fit to denounce it as the work of 
the devil himself. Old Dr. Mather was about the only 
defender of the discovery, and an attempt was made 
to destroy his house. A shell was thrown in, with a 
paper attached which bore this little compliment : — 

" Cotton Mather, I was of your meeting, but the cursed Lye 
you told of — you know who, made me leave you, you Dog; and. 
Damn you, I Enoculate you with this, with a pox to you." 

The press ridiculed the whole idea, and the clergy 
found abundant condemnation of it in the Bible. A 
few of the reasons urged against it may well be 
given : — 

" It is unlawful to make oneself sick when well, or to take 
distemper to oneself. We ought to wait God's time for it. 
Can we not trust God ? It is going from God to man. It is 
taking God's work out of his own hand. It [small-pox] is a 
judgment of God, sent to punish and humble us for our sins, 

21 



322 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

and we should not evade it. The fears of the disease ai'e of 
spiritual advantage. It [the remedy] has brought about many- 
sinful contentions. God has fixed and determined the time of 
man's life, and if his time be come, inoculation will not save. 
If one should die from inoculation, he sins, because he has 
brought it upon himself. It was originally from the devil, 
who first inoculated Job. To stop small-pox is to stop the fiat 
of the Almighty." 

All new discoveries interfere with accepted notions 
of things, and have to overcome an incalculable weight 
of prejudice. Not a single instance can be found of 
welcome or early commendation by Christianity of 
any new discovery, either in the intellectual world 
or in the physical world ; or if by any possibility an 
instance can be found, — and I should like to hear of 
one, — it will be during the last twenty-five years. It 
is strange that so few people appreciate the changes 
which these late years have brought. Who are they 
that admire these old radicals of the past ? We, 
whom they would consider heretics and infidels and 
sinners. 

For even the witch-burning fanatic we have some 
praise. Men will always love to see a courage that 
will stand any test, an honesty of conviction that will 
never shirk any responsibility, and a devotion to duty 
that nothing can shake. The admirable qualities of 
the Puritan are identical with those of the infidel. 
The difference is only one of direction. The sturdy 
integrity and fidelity to conscience that led men to 
express their honest convictions, though it brought 
disgrace and obloquy, is identical with that which led 
others to burn and torture and persecute for love of 
God. With a little more light the latter would have 
perceived a higher duty, and served it just as heartily 
and conscientiously. A little more ignorance would 



AGNOSTICISM. 323 

have led the former to just as bitter intolerance and 
just as contemptible bigotry. The sacrifice and self- 
denial and penance of past ages seem pitiable to 
us now; the cruelty and intolerance appear terribly 
hateful ; but nevertheless the principle behind the 
humility and bigotry alike was a noble principle, the 
actual presence of which is too little felt at present. 
Others who have held vastly different views have been 
actuated by the same manly resolution that inspired 
the saints of the past. Be true to yourself and you 
cannot be false to any man. Live up to your convic- 
tions, whatever betide. Not disgrace, nor torture, nor 
death, no, nor hell itself, shall shake the fixed deter- 
mination of the honest man to be true to his own con- 
victions. Better, a hundred times, eternal damnation 
itself, with a pure conscience and a stout heart, than 
eternal bliss won at the price of insincerity and 
cowardice. 

The fact that the most eminent men of the past 
have doubted the views of Christianity leads many to 
waver just a little in their opinions and convictions. 
Great men exert an influence over their contempo- 
raries, even though it be an unconscious influence. 
The result is clearly apparent at present. We are 
in a transition period so far as religion is concerned. 
There is far greater unanimity than is apparent. Able 
and practical men do not care to say what they think. 
We have to-day little of the religious sentiment of 
Christianity, and in subscribing to its doctrines we 
simply subscribe to a form. Our churches are Chris- 
tian only in form. We judge a formal man to be 
religious and Christian, when the very formalism 
which we see takes him out of either category. It 
is enough if one only wear a faultless black coat and 
a stiff, uncomfortable white collar, and carry a Bible 



324 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

or prayer-book in his hand. Our piety is largely 
decency ; our religion, propriety. 

Let us see what it really is to believe that old Bible, 
with its appalling threats and awful torments. Let 
us see how people who do actually believe it act and 
think. In this way, perhaps, we may best appreciate 
the almost universal unbelief of the present. 

There was John Bunyan : most good Christian 
people have read that great allegory, the Pilgrim's 
Progress, — not half so much an allegory to its author 
as we are inclined to think. Let us see how this man 
thought and acted. We have his own words to tell 
us, and shall not need to go far outside of them. 
In boyhood Bunyan had such an appreciation of his 
utter sinfulness, in common with humanity, that he 
continually dreamed frightful dreams. As he says, 
the Lord "did terrify me with dreadful visions." The 
only right men had, in his judgment, was the right 
to be eternally damned. He was convinced that he 
himself was a miserable wretch, so worthless at best 
as to deserve eternal damnation. At times, like Paul, 
he thought he saw Christ himself looking down at 
him out of the sky. He gave up dancing; he aban- 
doned music, though it cost him much, because he 
thought God did not like it. He loved to ring the 
bells in Elstow Church, but he felt obliged to give 
them up. Even then he could not keep away, and so 
he would go to the tower and look and listen. But 
finally his conscience troubled him so that he dared 
not go and look on, lest the very tower itself fall 
and kill him. 

All his fears took bodily form to his frenzied mind. 
His friends appeared to him sitting on a mountain- 
side in the cheerful sunlight, while he stood actually 
shivering in the cold and snow. He wanted to go to 



AGNOSTICISM. 325 

his friends, and finally found one very small passage 
through the separating wall. It taught him that none 
might really live but the downright earnest, and they 
must leave "the wicked world behind them." For 
here, as at the hole at the mountain wall, " was only 
room for body and soul, but not for body, soul, and 
sin." He wished to be good and be saved ; but no, 
for "it is not of him that willeth, or of him that run- 
neth, but of God that showeth mercy." He was so 
afraid of sinning that he dared not pick up a pin or a 
stick, though but as big as a straw, and he scarcely 
dared to speak words aloud for fear he " should mis- 
place them." He seemed to stand on a quagmire that 
shook if he stirred, left by God and Christ and the 
Spirit. His original inborn sin was like a sore. More 
loathsome he was to himself " than was a toad ; " and 
he thought he was so in the sight of God as well. His 
only equal, to his mind, was the devil. He blessed 
the condition of the "birds, beasts, and fishes, for 
they had not a sinful nature : they were not to go to 
hell-fire after death." 

The devil beset him with cruel doubts ; but Paul 
set him right, and gave him hope for his soul. But 
oh, to be a dog or a horse ; for they " had no soul to 
perish under the everlasting weight of hell for sin, 
as mine was like to do." The Bible gave him no help ; 
for in it he read his own condemnation, as any one 
must, who reads at all. But the greatest temptation 
of all was to sell his Lord. " Sell him I will not," 
he repeated again and again, "not for thousands of 
worlds." He fought bitterly against it, and fell back 
in exhaustion; and the involuntary thought passed 
through his brain, "Let him go if he will." 

This all but killed him. He wandered in the fields 
for hours, "as a man bereft of life and now past 



326 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

recovering, bound over to eternal punishment." He 
crawled under the hedges to hide his head. He 
seemed to himself to be worse than Judas. He thought 
how loathsome he " should be to all the saints at the 
Day of Judgment." There was no hope for him, God 
was tired of him, he thought. He sought comfort, 
but found none. The very " stones in the street and 
the tiles on the houses " were against him. Finally, 
heavenly voices sang to him, — sang sweet songs of 
encouragement ; and he saw Christ at the right 
hand of God watching him in all his acts, and the 
vision seemed to guide him aright. He was freed 
from bondage ; he found rest and peace. Then 
came happiness and victory, and soon he burst forth 
in praise of God. 

Christ, whom he had sold, now became his ally. His 
wife was dreadfully suffering once in confinement ; he 
prayed, and instantly her pains ceased and she fell 
asleep. Then he tells us that men do not pray aright, 
nor teach prayer as they ought. " They should teach 
their children betimes what cursed creatures they 
are, how they are under the wrath of God by reason 
of actual sin ; also to tell them the nature of God's 
wrath and the duration of misery." In preaching he 
did not care for praise. Once when he was com- 
plimented on a fine sermon, he replied : " You need 
not remind me of that ; the devil told me of it before I 
was out of the pulpit." Such a belief as Bunyan had 
admits of no trifling. Mere graces of oratory, pretty 
sentimental sermonizing, and brilliant, popular lectur- 
ing have no place in earnest, unadulterated Chris- 
tianity. True faith in the Bible will make a man 
forget the world, hate joy and comfort, and think of 
his soul and its fate. 

Just imagine the situation a moment : suppose 



AGNOSTICISM. 327 

your pet preacher now — nice, sleek, highly polished 
gentleman that he is — really thought he was a poor 
miserable devil from original sin ; that he could not do 
right, but must always be evil, and an eyesore to God 
in it ; and that an awful hell, eternal with torments, 
awaited him unless he laid firm hold on faith, and 
even then that the chances were against him, — suppose 
he really believed this, and it is God's own word, do 
you think he would stand so calmly, so gracefully, by 
that beautiful pulpit overflowing with rare and costly 
flowers, speaking so elegantly and properly ? Great 
heavens, how he would jump and yell and sweat, if 
he did have faith ! And his congregation, too, they 
would drop their smelling-bottles and fans as if they 
were red-hot coals from hell itself, and groan and 
mutter and lie weltering on the floor, as I have seen 
the faithful in very truth do. Such a belief will cure 
men of affectation and trifling, if it does not make 
them insane. No, your beloved pastor does not 
believe the Bible any more than — than you do, for 
instance. Men are no longer self-conscious when in 
downright earnest. I once saw a minister so wrought 
up in his preaching that he forgot all about where he 
was, and unconsciously stepped right off the platform. 
Picking himself up without a moment's hesitation, he 
resumed his place and subject with only the remark, 
" I 'd rather fall there than into hell ; " and he meant it. 
The religion of modern times has come to be a 
thing of words, and of words that too often suggest no 
ideas. We have a few phrases learned by rote which 
we mutter over in unison, a few maxims with which 
we begin essays and sermons. Religious doctrines 
are familiar to us from childhood, and came to us like 
the clothes on our backs, and we did not think or care 
to question. Not one church-member in a hundred 



328 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

deliberates upon his own individual belief and con- 
duct. They admit the blessing of the poor in spirit, 
and those whom men revile. They know it is easier 
for camels to pass through needles' eyes than for 
rich men to enter into the kingdom of heaven. They 
do not judge lest they be judged, nor do they swear at 
all. To love one's neighbor as one's self, and to send 
the coat on after the cloak, and to turn the cheek to 
smiter are all good maxims ; to think not of the 
morrow, and to give to the poor, and to look for 
reward in heaven are all good morals. Church- 
members believe this firmly, — so firmly that they 
neither care nor think anything about it. They not 
only believe these things, but they live up to them as 
they do to other rules of good breeding. They are not 
to put themselves out to do good or to be virtuous ; 
this is not good breeding. Reasonable, respectable, 
proper efforts are to be made to aid the poor. Good 
taste does not permit earnestness. If opportunity 
for good arise, they must look around and observe 
how others of the church of respectability act under 
similar circumstances. Why, in the old days the 
Romans used to wonder at how Christians loved 
one another ! There is little danger of anybody's 
wondering nowadays at the love Christians display 
one for another. Virtuous maxims are an old, old 
story, and like antiquated jokes only make us yawn. 
There is indeed a " slumber " of certainty. 

I do not think I have exaggerated the characteriza- 
tion at all. The candid reader will readily admit that 
the average church member, or attendant at least, does 
not worry himself very much over the frightful pun- 
ishments so often brought to his notice, and so often 
in his mouth. We become accustomed to these words, 
and know that they don't mean anything, and, except 



AGNOSTICISM. 329 

in rare instances and at certain limited periods, never 
did mean anything. It is no exaggeration to say that 
few people have any lasting dread of future punish- 
ment after death, or indeed any great longing for 
heavenly bliss. Heaven and hell are little more than 
forms, and words to swear by. A day of earth is 
reckoned as of infinitely more value than a thousand 
years of either, and rightly. This has always been so, 
and I think always will be. This namby-pambyism, 
this living of lies and teaching of falsehoods, is sick- 
ening. Let us honor and respect those worthy preach- 
ers who have dared to speak out for once boldly and 
honestly their candid opinions about their creeds and 
the Bible. The only lamentable fact is, they keep 
right on preaching the same old Bible, in the same 
old way, under the same old creed. They put it that 
they are willing to sacrifice their own opinions for 
the good of their churches, and the benefit of the com- 
munity at large. They serve men. Serve men by 
living and preaching what they know and confess is 
a lie ? Christian policy — Christian politics ! — to 
preach what you do not believe ? The good old 
Anglo-Saxon word for it is "lie." It is not Chris- 
tian charity and kindly regard for others ; it is moral 
cowardice. Whoever preaches a theology or a moral- 
ity he does not believe, and under a creed which he 
knows is false, is not serving the best interest of man- 
kind ; he is doing about as much injury as he can do, 
and is a hypocrite and a moral coward as well. 

To leave the ecclesiastical order, do we hear much 
from the lawyers, doctors, and professional men gen- 
erally about Christian theories ? Is there one among 
them all who has read the creeds, or even that of his 
own church ? Even the clergy admit they do not 
read them. Doctrinal Christianity already is but a 



330 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

name. Thousands who are liberals at heart are sim- 
ply waiting until the popular movement shall be ab- 
solutely unmistakable before declaring themselves. 
And this time is not far distant. When all the abil- 
ity is on one side, and all the ignorance and prejudice 
on the other, it is more than possible that the ability 
may be right and the ignorance wrong. If there is 
anything that indicates with certainty the agnosticism 
of the age, the feeling of doubt about truths formerly 
considered infallible and divinely revealed, it is the 
fact of the contemporaneous and comparatively peace- 
ful existence of so many sects of Christianity, holding 
views all the way from Scriptural and Church infalli- 
bility and the absolute divinity of Christ, veritable 
Son of God, born of the Virgin. Mary by immaculate , 
conception, to utter rejection of all of these teachings. 
Consider the significance of Unitarianism : a denial 
of Scriptural infallibility, a denial of the infallibility 
of the Church, a denial of the divinity of Christ, a 
denial of miracles and of divine interference, a denial 
of the Trinity, a denial of the atonement, a denial of 
the resurrection of the body. What is there left 
of Christianity ? Absolutely nothing as a doctrinal 
theory of religion. The sect has absolutely no creed. 
What agnostic goes farther than this ? 

We have a sect admitted among the Christian broth- 
erhood which holds as essential truth absolutely noth- 
ing beyond morality. Men can be good without any 
theories of theology whatever. Is not this infidelity ? 
Says one of their well-known exponents : " Unitarian- 
ism is a protest against the materialism that makes a 
man non-moral, and the theology that makes him im- 
moral. . . . We believe in the moral accountability of 
man. We believe in independence and in freedom of 
thought." Is not this a sign of the second coming 



AGNOSTICISM. 331 

of Christ himself ? Catholicism and Unitarianism are 
the ouly consistent modern sects. Catholicism is con- 
sistent because it preaches logically a poor creed ; 
Unitarianism is consistent because it persists logi- 
cally in none. Great credit is due both for daring to 
be honest. 

What is the commercial side of the question ? A 
few years ago when a young man seeking employment 
presented his credentials, conspicuous among them 
was the statement that the applicant was a Christian 
and a member of the Church. Its absence called out 
an inquiry as to the fact. The applicant's success de- 
pended upon his being orthodox. At present all this 
is lacking. Honesty and industry are the qualities 
mentioned in the credentials, and they secure the po- 
sition, and, later, advancement. How completely has 
orthodoxy vanished from our e very-day life ! Here is 
another indication of the times. These characteristics 
are simply negative characteristics. The question 
"Are you a Christian?" is simply omitted. People 
say nothing about it, except on Sunday, and then the 
talk is confined almost solely to the clergy. On the 
other hand, people do not require as yet open, positive 
scepticism. Still, there is a positive tendency even 
here, and quite perceptible. It is the liberal-minded 
clergyman that wins the applause, never the old out- 
and-out orthodox divine. And this is true even in 
orthodox sects, those whose creeds are the very nar- 
rowest and the most intolerant. The greatest preacher 
in this country to-day is popular, not because of his 
orthodoxy, but because of his lack of it, — a lack 
which all but cost him a bishopric. People even 
wonder how his church can retain him, and humor- 
ously insinuate that it has to put up with it as 
best it can. 



332 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Scepticism or agnosticism, then, has been rather 
passive than active, though there is a wonderful ac- 
tivity that is not apparent. It is a hidden force, 
working below the surface. This is the history of 
all reforms. They are brought about after years of 
quiet and hidden progress. Sudden, destructive revo- 
lution is by no means the real reform ; it is but the 
incident to reform, oftentimes actually hindering and 
delaying the real progressive movement incalculably. 
This is the regular process of Nature. The infant is 
quietly and continuously, but secretly, nourished for 
many months, until finally one day there is an hour 
of intense anguish, and the child is born. The birth 
is but an incident to its life, — at times an incident 
which brings disaster, absolute destruction in a mo- 
ment of the quiet and unseen growth of months. 
Again, human civilization has been likened to an 
iceberg drifting slowly southward to the open sea. 
At first but little of the great mountain of ice is 
visible above water, and the whole mass is as steady 
as the land itself. But down below the surface, hun- 
dreds of fathoms down, warmer currents wash the 
base of the berg. Silently and stealthily the gravity 
of the whole mass is changed, and the early stability 
seems mysteriously gone ; until finally, without a mo- 
ment's notice to the casual observer, the great berg 
heaves over and disappears with a mighty plunge. 

A similar fate surely awaits this stupendous and 
magnificent religious system ; only the final violence 
of revolution will be wanting. " Gently and without 
grief the old shall glide into the new. The eternal 
flow of things, like a bright river of the fields of 
heaven, shall journey onward in perpetual peace." 
Such was the downfall of Paganism ; and it is surely 
but a question of time when Christianity likewise 



AGNOSTICISM. 333 

shall cease to be accepted as a religious system. It 
will simply die out. Just as the moral teachings of 
Paganism remained, so will the enhanced morality of 
Christianity abide. The truth in all systems alone 
survives. 

But what of Agnosticism in the future ? Shall it, 
too, yield to something else ? As a philosophical 
system, it certainly will disappear. It was a fool who, 
bitten by many fleas, put out the light, saying, " You 
no longer see me." As a practical tendency it will 
remain and flourish, with temporary set-backs, it is 
true, until the nature of mankind, becoming abso- 
lutely perfect through evolution, shall really under- 
stand the universe in all its infinite totality. To 
assert that this time will ever be realized would re- 
quire the very perfection indicated. Certain it is 
that the character of human existence would have to 
undergo considerable modification to attain this height 
of wisdom. Infinite hope, however, is extended to 
humanity in evolution. Its attainment without modi- 
fication would be simply the precursor of absolute 
ruin. Man as such, without any truth to strive for, is 
a low brute, and must ever be such while controlled 
by present prevailing laws. The words of Lessing 
well express the idea : " If God should extend to me 
in his right hand absolute truth, and in his left 
hand the eternal striving for truth, coupled with the 
certainty to me of never-failing error, and should say^ 
^ Choose ! ' I would take in all humility the left, say- 
ing, ^ Father, give ! absolute truth is for thee alone.' " 

The wise of hundreds of generations to come will 
be agnostics or doubters ; the ignorant will always 
understand all things. Theories of religion and the- 
ology have always existed, and will continue to exist 
for centuries, not to say forever. But all these theo- 



334 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ries from their very nature must be incomplete. The 
great work of humanity is to conquer untruth and 
superstition. 

These two yield only to education, and education 
always involves doubt. Without doubt all knowledge 
were impossible. Every man before he enters the 
temple of learning must make free confession of his 
own ignorance. A thinking man is the greatest enemy 
of superstition ; and a man never begins to think 
without first saying, " I don't know." 

The whole secret of human progress lies in one 
word, " education." The only honorable occupation for 
humanity is teaching. The teacher is great because 
he humbles himself. He that would become truly 
great must serve men. Ich dien ^ is the noblest motto 
ever written ; and it is that of Christ himself. 

The common school is the highest achievement of 
modern civilization. No other work will compare 
with it. It is noble because it is the reflection of 
God's own infinite light. And there is no higher and 
more worthy class of men in the whole world to-day 
than schoolmasters. They are the divine men, called 
to the highest labor conceivable. If there is any 
person that appears holy to my eyes, it is the school- 
teacher with his well-worn books under his arm. 
Blessed are the teachers, for they are the children of 
God! 

If our age is the highest stage yet reached in civili- 
zation, our acquisition of knowledge has made it so. 
Consider the responsibility that rests upon us, if in 
very truth we are at the front. The responsibility of 
every step almost induces a shudder or a feeling of 
faintness. If our position is the highest, so our 
duties are the most severe. The prophet is of the 

1 " I serve." 



AGNOSTICISM. 335 

past. Let us continue to work with all his zeal and 
spiiit, only on a different road. Martin Luther him- 
self was the champion of individual independence. 
His whole fight was for freedom of interpretation of 
the Scriptures. We have but to extend his idea. 
Thanks to the divine energy and patience of man 
himself, theological propositions are not now the 
standards by which goodness and wisdom are judged. 
Life may be noble and helpful outside the pale of 
theological isms and beyond the control of ecclesias- 
tical bigotry. 

" Our remedies oft in ourselves do He, 
Which we ascribe to heaven : the fated sky 
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull 
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull." 

Many pretty little gems of faith will rise, and 
trusting, credulous, dependent souls will cling to 
guiding hands stretched down from heaven, unseen 
by the more self-reliant because not sought. 

'' This pretty bird. Oh, how she flies and sings ; 
But could she do so, if she had not win^s ? 
Her wings bespeak my faith, her songs my peace ; 
When I believe and sino- mv doubtino;s cease." 

" Like a blind spinner in the sun, 

I tread my days. 
I know that all the threads will run 

Appointed ways; 
I know each day will bring its task, 
And, being blind, no more I ask." 

This will do very well for sentimental ladies to 
linger over in. the dreamy, sunny days of early 
spring, when the whole being is languid, and the 



336 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

system needs strengthening and invigorating; but 
noble-hearted, brave mothers, with large families of 
boys and girls to bring up, have no time for petty 
sentiment. There is plenty of hearty, honest senti- 
ment which is only too little read. It is folly for 
those who are not blind to shut their eyes ; and in- 
deed the blind who are energetic will be eager to 
learn, and by no means willing to sit idly by, waiting 
for what may come. Think what the very blind 
have done ! Those who crave for a taste of the invig- 
orating apples of knowledge find little nourishment 
in the insipid, melting fruit of faith that rots on the 
ground. 

If Amphion had waited for the gods to furnish 
music, the walls of Thebes had never been built. 
Humanity must sing as it works, or rather it must 
heartily get to work, and then the burden of song 
will rise with characteristic cadence unbidden. Let 
the gods attend to their own affairs. Not by long 
prayer, not by much sacrifice and praise, will any 
one of them be induced to move mountains. Put 
faith in human heads and hands, and mountains shall 
vanish into the sea, or where you will, as indeed they 
have already. I would rather have to work for me 
one active, robust man, willing to learn and eager to 
work, than all the gods that have existed in the mind 
of man from the beginning of time ; and when I have 
something to do which requires a good deal of care, I 
leave it to neither god nor man, but do it myself. 

It is not a characteristic of true greatness to assert 
that human happiness is and must always remain im- 
perfect; that society is inherently defective, and man 
by nature abortive and deformed. To those who en- 
tertain such views of human existence there is but 
one refuge : they must from sheer necessity cling to 



AGNOSTICISM. 337 

supernatural doctrines. Prayer and fasting, sacri- 
fices, catechisms, and lioly water are the inevitable 
attendants of such beliefs. Thank God, there is a 
higher faith than this, — a faith which hungers and 
thirsts after truth, fain to believe that it is attainable, 
if only rightly and intelligently sought. No trick of 
words, no cabalistic sentence or mysterious utterance 
will open the door to Aladdin's cave. " Open sesame '' 
is a fable, a story for children, withal capable of a 
higher interpretation. Knock and it shall be opened ; 
if not willingly, yet by persistent and well-directed 
blows you shall batter the very gate from its hinges. 
Seek and you shall find. 

If we must have a magical word, — and it does 
seem necessary, — let us at least have one which has 
some practical efficacy. "Education" may be suggested 
as a good one. Only try to understand and be willing 
to learn, and something is sure to be gained. We can 
conceive for others blessings which we may not enjoy. 
We can summon hopes for the future which the pres- 
ent may not entertain. As mankind climbs higher 
the hill of learning, the horizon is extended. The 
capabilities of expansion are infinite. Hitherto in 
forming our judgments the oracles have been sought 
and depended on, and we have given implicit cre- 
dence to our imagination. Superstition has held im- 
perious sway. We have bound ourselves to the 
superficiality of religious divination. But science 
has been struggling for freedom all these long ages. 
First the mind asserted its independence ; then the 
hands burst their bonds and undid, with no little toil 
and bruising, the fetters of the feet. This age has 
removed the gag ; and the tongue, the little member, 
greatest next to the mind, has begun to roll about 
with curiously beautiful effect. 

22 



338 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The mind in science frees itself and leads the heart 
in reason, or if straying now and again is quickly 
brought back by a noble, controlling impulse which 
yet it taught. It makes use in its persuasions of 
appliances whose exactness and accuracy have been 
tested, and are always susceptible of proof. Thus 
measured, what we took to be deformity proves to be 
regular conformation ; shapelessness reveals forms of 
perfect symmetry ; what seemed capricious and aim- 
less discloses a prevailing principle, and the old mul- 
tiplicity and discord end in harmony and unity. Out 
of all this a new idea of learning arises, amenable to 
science, and as such capable of expansion ; recogniz- 
ing the right and duty of independent judgment, and 
consequently leaving religion free to humanity. Who 
is not ennobled by learning that principle produces 
form, that matter is thought, that all Nature is har- 
monious unity ? Holding to this broad conception of 
things, art is ever growing, morality springs up anew, 
and religion is born again. 



MORALITY. 339 



IX. 

MORALITY. 

"A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one an- 
other; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you 
have love one to another." 

IN these simple, loving words, and others like them, 
how great and sublime does the master seem, and 
how pitiably small and contemptible in comparison 
appears the disorderly crowd of questioners, commen- 
tators, and expounders, bitterly struggling from the 
first to gain proselytes for this or that sect of Chris- 
tianity ! " By this shall all men know that you are my 
disciples, if you have love one to another.''^ Civiliza- 
tion has not yet caught the meaning of Christ's words, 
though he was crucified two thousand years ago. 

I think it was Jean Paul Eichter who said that 
men have gods because adoration is a good deal easier 
than obedience. Here is a whole book in a single 
sentence. • It is infinitely easier to be devout than it 
is to be good. Pious enthusiasm passes in religious 
circles for good deeds. Ecclesiastical indolence, the 
shrewd invention of sanctified ingenuity, makes an 
eminently respectable display of pious rapture, and 
thereby gains exemption from the toil of doing good. 
It is not good form, on the contrary it is decidedly 
out of taste, earnestly and persistently to exert one- 
self for the good of the vulgar common people. There 



340 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

is, however, an enormous amount of maudlin sym- 
pathy and piously stupid supplication wasted over 
these same vulgar people. 

For some years now the heated discussions of in- 
harmonious and conflicting sects have ended consider- 
ably short of war and bloodshed. People have ceased 
to take up arms at the cry of heresy. Most of the sects 
even have advanced so far as to detect some slight 
difference between Calvin and Christ. But many com- 
mon people, venturing even farther out, have boldly 
asked the question, Whether is better, to be ortho- 
dox or to be good ? The theological spirit belongs 
to an earlier century. The great army of theologi- 
ans has been forced to retreat, and but the stragglers 
remain. Propositions which half a century ago would 
have convulsed society, now with difhculty gain a hear- 
ing. The fiery philippics of ecclesiastics have been 
brushed awaj^ with other rubbish, to be burned as chaff. 
The times have no need of such matter. Even the 
evangelical clergymen show indications of superseding 
theology by morality. There has been quite enough 
discussion about infallibility, divinity, repentance, and 
death. Let us abandon this for something better and 
more useful. An honest, conscientious man should 
think of all things least of death ; and wisdom is 
meditation on life. Let xhe dead bury their dead, and 
come you with me and take thought on this life. 

There is no denying the fact that we do have to 
live in this world ; the question for earnest men is 
how best to live here. While we remain on earth, 
shall we add something ennobling to the world, or 
shall we suck something out of it ? Whether Prot- 
estant or Catholic, Christian or heathen, let us make 
the world the better for our living in it. These are 
the questions and ideas for us. It matters little how 



MORALITY. 341 

great and profound speculation man entertains of 
God, except that it is an indication of his progress, 
following rather than leading, so long as he is slave 
to his lusts and passions ; it is of no consequence 
how little speculation he entertains of God, so he live 
aright. His creed cannot be wrong whose life is in 
the right. "Do right and fear no one; you may be 
sure that with all your consideration for the world, 
you w411 never satisfy the world." 

This little earth is to us a real, earnest place, — no 
idle jest, but rather a serious fact. ISTow, w^hat shall 
we do with it ? We cannot shift it off on God or the 
devil either ; we must perforce handle it ourselves. 
Prayer, as the word goes, will help us little. When 
we pray, in the old, common, slovenly way, "Now I 
lay me down to sleep," or, " Our Father who art in 
heaven," we utter too often either a meaningless form, 
or else we seek to shift our burdens off on somebody 
else. How rare is a genuine heart-felt prayer ! My 
friend, have you offered a single one during the past 
month, or even the past year ? Have you prayed at 
all during the year ? 

There is a familiar song, sung in every Protestant 
church in the world to-day, which always seems to me 
utterly contemptible and low, and totally unworthy of 
an honest man. The first two lines ought to bring a 
blush to the face of every self-reliant, upright man. 

" What a friend we have in Jesus, 
All our sins and griefs to bear." 

I have no words to express my utter contempt for 
such debasing sentiments. To me it is sacrilege, and 
worse than blasphemy can be, to couple any such sen- 
timents as this with the glorious, high-minded inde- 
pendence of Christ. I can only deplore the judgment 



342 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

of those who find Christ an impostor ; for that pious 
sanctity which either treacherously or ignorantly — 
for such ignorance is no excuse in the light of these 
times — makes him the cesspool of the social Christian 
sewer, I have nothing but a mingled feeling of bitter- 
ness and hatred and loathing. I dislike to seem dog- 
matic ; anger I think unworthy ; but there is a point 
where patience ceases to be a virtue. Christ himself 
once drove, with a whip of cords, the hucksters from 
the temple. 

If you have done a wrong and guilty deed, be a 
man and right it. Go to the person you have injured 
and tell him the whole truth about it, and then do 
your very best to make amends. Do not fall on your 
knees, and pray to your god to pardon you. You have 
injured the unfortunate object of your evil deed a 
hundred times more than you have any god. You 
have injured your own miserable self more than you 
can injure any god. And in such prayer you can only 
increase the guilt and injury to yourself. When you 
fall on your knees in this way, what are you doing ? 
Are you half honest about it ? The truth is, you 
dread to confess your error, you lack the courage of 
honesty; you are a pious coward, and seek to shirk 
the responsibility. Oh, you poor, miserable wretch! 
Christ is no refuge for despicable, slinking cowards ; 
he will bear no man^s sin or grief, and you simply 
reveal your own meanness of heart to expect it. 
Christ will not lower himself to your level. Not 
even if your god himself wished to do so, could he 
take the responsibility for your crime and error. 

Kindness is better than penance ; mercy is better 
than sacrifice ; reparation is better than prayer. How 
can a man kneel beside his wife and pray honestly to 
his god for forgiveness of sins, while she whom he 



MOKALITY. 343 

has cruelly wronged, slie who still loves on and is 
obedient, true to the vow which she took years ago 
when the future looked so bright and promising, is 
asking, with heart well-nigh broken, "Why doesn't 
he love me and ask my forgiveness ? " There is 
something unspeakably sad in that little domestic 
picture which Thackeray draws of the home of a 
drunken, dissolute man. " Where 's his wife, thought 
I ? Where 's poor, good, kind little Laura ? At this 
very moment — it's about the nursery bedtime, and 
while yonder Good-for-nothing is swilling his wine — 
the little ones are at Laura's knees lisping their prayer ; 
and she is teaching them to say, ' Pray God bless 
Papa ! ' " Children need a mother's love more than 
established orthodoxy. There is plenty of faith in 
human love. Says a Spanish proverb : " An ounce of 
mother is better than a pound of clergy." I say there 
is no honesty in such a religion as this, and I say it 
in grief. Its whole tendency is to hypocrisy. 

This practice of prayer which prevails in all our 
churches is little if anything more than a meaningless 
form or a pompous show. Why, these prayers are 
printed in the newspapers ! Think of it, a prayer 
published in the " Globe " ! This is enterprise indeed. 
Does the Christian god take the " Globe " or the 
" Tribune " ? It would be a revelation to him if he 
could read them ; they might do him some good. Our 
newspapers are by no means altogether faultless ; 
but there is much in them for the orthodox god to 
learn, both of wisdom and of morals. 

How many people pray daily or at night by the 
bedside, as in childhood at mothers' knees ? It is a 
beautiful thing, — this sweet, innocent prayer of child- 
hood. How unworthy does the prayer of manhood 
seem beside it, — to sit in the church with bowed 



344 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

head wishing the parson would stop ; or to kneel be- 
fore thousands, muttering, " God have mercy on us 
miserable sinners," to repeat it again and again, and 
then to get up and sigh. On the Christian's own 
theory of God and his attributes, prayer is useless. 
But it is asserted that God loves to be praised, — a piti- 
able excuse indeed. To take a familiar example, 
every Sunday prayers are offered for some sick person, 
some loved child or brother or sister, that lies at the 
point of death : ''Kot my will, but thine, Lord, be 
done." If God is the all-wise being he is represented 
to be, if he is all-powerful and all-knowing, and does 
everything for the best, prayer cannot influence him 
one way or the other. It must be annoying, not to 
say impertinent. 

We are told that he loves praise, and if so he is 
quite human. But our praise is very specious. It is 
as plain as a simple geometrical proposition, Q. E. D. 
" O Lord, thou art good and wise and merciful, and we 
praise thee daily. We have indeed remembered our 
Creator from the days of our youth, singing daily his 
praises, offering every night our prayers ; .'.be mind- 
ful of us, and send us all that is good and pure and 
true in life. Incline us to the right. We know we 
are poor miserable creatures ; but thy grace can save, 
ay, hath saved, and thy mercy always hearkens. 
Grant our petitions, if it be thy will, and thine shall 
be the praise forevermore. Amen." Here is the 
average prayer in substance, though short in form ; 
and what a mockery, if God really be what we are 
taught ! After it is finished we sigh and forget all 
about it, and in a half-hour cannot for the life of 
us tell what we have prayed for. True, the mother 
bending over her feverish child does pray in earnest 
for the quivering spark of life that still lingers 



MORALITY. 345 

hovering on its parched lips, and that prayer is touch- 
ingly sad; but such a prayer is by no means the 
rule. We become very devout in danger and trials. 

There is a common story told of two Irishmen 
crossing over East Eiver. It was when Brooklyn 
Bridge was in process of construction, and the two 
hardy Hibernians had crawled out on one of the 
cables, one just behind the other. Pausing a moment 
to rest, they found themselves midway out, high up 
over the dark, treacherous water, that seemed to gleam 
maliciously at them, quivering with fear on the 
trembling cable. " Ach, Pat, God is a good man," was 
the solemn comment of the leader, to whom was re- 
turned in the same subdued tones : "Arra, Mike, and 
the divil is not so bad as he 's panted." As they crept 
painfully on, every few feet the leader would groan, 
"God is a very good man," and Pat would always 
offer the touching response, " And the divil is not so 
bad as he 's panted." And so with much earnest 
muttering and honest prayer they crawled slowly on. 
Finally Mike laid firm hold of the farther fastening 
and jumped bravely to terra firma, interrupting his 
honest companion's last " Divil is not as bad as he 's 
panted " with the still more common and general, 
" To hell with thim both." Oh, we are wonderfully 
pious in trouble, provided we have not had enough of 
it to drive all such pious belief and hope out of us ! 
Even in our prosperity we are much more ready to 
thank God than to help our less fortunate or success- 
ful fellow-men. 

In our pride and our avarice and our self-interest 
we are forever petitioning heaven for its smile of 
favor. We argue with God with logic from his own 
sacred word. A thousand texts we thi-ow in his 
patient face. We appeal, we shriek, we rage, as 



346 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

humility or justice or hate moves us. We are al- 
ways so sure that our own vision is perfect. Out of it 
all we do emerge finally, forgetful, appeased, even 
cheerful. "Alas, patient and long-suffering God, 
thou needst be more surelier God to endure us than 
to have made us." In general, we care little about 
our prayer or religion. We do not half expect the 
one to be answered or the other to be rewarded ; and 
so rarely if ever does apparent answer or reward 
come, that we regard both as respectable forms to be 
kept up as a matter of public policy. 

During a severe drought in the country which 
proved very disastrous to crops, the good old parson 
called his people together at the little white church to 
pray for rain. As the people gathered, a little girl 
who had brought an umbrella excited a good deal of 
comment and ridicule. " Why," said the old beldames, 
" what did you bring your umbrella for ? " The 
little girl's ready and honest answer was : " I thought 
you were going to pray for rain." Here is the whole 
situation in a nutshell. Ko one expected his prayer or 
that of all the people together to be answered. On 
the contrary, all were surprised at the child's in- 
genuousness, and had but a sneer for her innocence. 
The little girl was the only honest one in the lot, 
save the grim crazy old farmer who muttered as he 
stood on the porch, "What poor old fools, to pray for 
rain with the wind dead in the northwest ! " If 
honest John Bunyan prayed for rain, he took mighty 
good care to have his top-boots, slouch hat, and 
waterproof greatcoat, surer of nothing than the 
speedy realization of such a hurricane and deluge 
as would all but lay waste and drown the world 
again. 

Christ taught a vastly different lesson. Reconcilia- 



MORALITY. 347 

tion should precede sacrifice. Never mind the gifts 
to God; leave them on the altar, and go and make 
peace with the brother you have wronged. Having 
made peace with your fellow-men, there will be time 
and to spare to make peace with your god. There 
is falsity in any religion which pretends or inti- 
mates that any being — god, man, or devil — can take 
away the consequences of good or evil. A faith 
which holds out pardon absolute without possessing 
any right of pardon, is a sham and a lie. Even the 
law of man is above such reproach. What right 
have I, a stranger, to pay another's debt ? What 
liability can I incur for a stranger ? Absolutely 
none, and the law declares it with justice. How can 
one pardon a private injury committed unknown to 
him by others ? With innocence atonement is im- 
possible. No god can have the right or the ability to 
pardon sins between man and man. Humanity will 
have made great progress when it shall realize the 
fallacy of any such principle of living as that which 
underlies the whole theory of the Christian religion, 
for the atonement is the essence of the faith. Christ 
said he had not seen such faith in all Israel, as that 
of the publican who offered restitution fourfold to 
any he had wronged. When man shall have acquired 
the honesty and the courage fairly and openly to 
meet the consequences of his own folly and crime, 
and justly to make amends for injuries done to oth- 
ers, hypocrisy will cease to exist. The Christian reli- 
gion proper is a breeder of hypocrisy. Hypocrites 
flock by the thousands to the churches ; they sub- 
scribe by thousands to the creeds ; they contribute by 
thousands to the charities, hoping thereby to seem 
better than they are, and to get great gain where they 
give little value. 



348 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

Something has been said in another chapter of the 
immense speculation practised in Christianity. This 
is no mere fancy. There is scarcely a church-member 
but knows in his heart that he buys his religion as a 
bargain. Few people enter the church to add some- 
thing to it and to noble, upright living. Most enter 
because it is proper and fashionable to be a regular 
attendant, and not a few because they hope to get 
something out of it. These speculators invest a dol- 
lar to draw out ten ; their pew-rent comes back in 
trade, or they think it will; their tender mercies and 
charities bless him that gives vastly out of proportion 
to him that takes ; they cast their bread upon the 
waters, that it may return to them after many days. 
The deacons of the holy church, like the Eoman 
augurs, cannot help winking at one another at times, 
while the office of Sunday-school superintendent has 
become a standing joke. 

All the essential legsons which Christ taught are 
absolutely devoid of dogmatic theology and bigoted 
sectarianism. The essence of each and every one of 
the characteristic stories, all of which are so familiar 
to us from the Scripture, is simple and unalloyed 
morality. There are no thirty-nine articles to a 
moral life. Morality is above such petty rules. I 
can well imagine the perplexity of the learned in- 
quisitor who asked the master for his definition of 
the word " neighbor," as he listened to the story of 
the good Samaritan. 

Christianity proper is not moral according to the 
advanced idea of the times. That it was once the 
expression of the highest morality known to mankind 
cannot be doubted. But while men have advanced, 
Christianity has remained stationary, or at most has 
swung on a pivot, being securely anchored to an in- 



MORALITY. 349 

fallible revelation. The hypocrisy which is its inevi- 
table offspring has already been noticed sufficiently. 
It pervades the entire system from beginning to end, 
as a modern theory of religion. Badman frankly dis- 
closes the reason : people love their vice, but do not 
care to bear its name. 

Christianity is absolutely lacking in essential vir- 
tue. Holding out its highest rewards to all who have 
faith in its teachings, it signally fails as a moral sys- 
tem. It fails to account for thousands of people who 
will never know of its saintly lessons. Twist and 
distort the texts as you w^ill, salvation by faith alone 
is the highest offer this great religion extends to 
humanity. 

Virtue is no living force here ; it is but a dead 
theory. It is negative rather than positive. Under 
the system it is essential only to avoid error and 
crime as defined by the law. Judaism would be a 
more applicable term for the faith than Christianity. 
The term in use is a libel on Christ, who taught an 
active, persistent virtue as the essence of goodness. 
Christianity, on the contrary, teaches men to shun 
and hate the world, — a command which many of its 
followers in the past have literally and faithfully 
obeyed. And yet this very command itself is im- 
moral. This world, whether it be good or bad, has 
innumerable duties for man, the avoidance of which 
is positive error. Failure to do good, as well as the 
actual commission of crime, is a departure from vir- 
tue. Mere observance of the decalogue will not win 
salvation. Little credit does he deserve who, in one 
way or another, manages to pick his way through 
life without ever having violated the commandments. 
This is exactly the boast which the rich young noble- 
man made to Christ. The servant who carefully hid 



350 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

away his single talent, it will be remembered, was 
cast into outer darkness. To pray, " Lead us not into 
temptation," is not enough ; it is our duty to see that 
we do not throw ourselves in the way of temptation. 
To be good, man must do good. 

This great religion asks men to be Christian rather 
than to be virtuous. It reasons in this way : Because 
you are a criminal is no reason why you should be an 
infidel ; come, the blessed Lord holds out his hands 
to thee. As if, indeed, God were a Christian ! Man 
is outcast unless he is such. The faith seeks to thrust 
upon mankind, not the virtues of Christ, but his mere 
name. Hence it is that the Church is always speak- 
ing of goodness, but rarely has a word of praise for 
good men, much less of censure for bad men. Of 
course, her position is rather delicate. She fears 
offence. Why, a dead man's pageant and eulogy 
shall be, not as his virtues were, but as the gold he 
has left behind. Eecall the eulogies of the pulpit. 
Hie jacet is the meanest vanity of all, rendered pos- 
sible by a system that teaches the possibility of reli- 
gion without morality, and of piety without virtue. 
*^ He died a Christian," — what a farce ! 

The dishonesty and fraud of trade, ruining hun- 
dreds of innocent victims, meets with no reproach 
from the pulpit. The poor Irishwoman, with seven 
fatherless children, who keeps a little dirty saloon in 
a back alley does indeed call forth a perfect torrent 
of abuse, and the clergy at times wax frantic over her 
crime ; but not a word, not a syllable, is breathed 
against the bloated brewer, who swaggers even into 
the very church itself, highly respected and honored. 
Oh, for shame ! Of these the poor widow is a mar- 
tyr ; the rich, flabby brewer is respectable ; but the 
Church is altogether contemptible. Nothing so low- 



MOKALITY. 351 

ers Christianity in the minds of honest people, as the 
existence of such unworthy practices in the Church 
which bears its name, especially when it is discovered 
that the existence of such things is due to the immo- 
rality of the system. There is always the assurance 
of the possibility of buying off its god by prayer or 
fasting or sacrifice. It has its price within the reach 
of all. God is very merciful ; his price is low, so 
no one need ever conclude that he is really beyond 
salvation. 

Selfishness is another inherent fault of the Chris- 
tian system. It teaches men to consider their own 
personal salvation of the very highest importance. 
Have I sinned ? have I hurt myself with God ? — these 
are the questions that it bids men ask themselves ; 
not. Have I hurt my fellow-men? The self-denial 
of personal gratification is a credit that all of us are 
apt to enter in our accounts. How different is the 
self-forgetfulness which Chri&t taught : " He that 
serves is greatest among you." 

The practical results of this failing are as numerous 
as the sands of the shore. To how many people is the 
Christian Sabbath made hateful by this very selfish- 
ness of others. Play is frowned upon, and pleasure- 
trips are forbidden. A grave decorum is exacted, 
and stiff and faultless black dress is required. Ko 
singing l|ut of hymns is permitted, and no reading 
but of sermons and Biblical commentaries. The 
clergy attempt to prohibit the sale of the Sunday 
papers ; the distribution of mail even is forbidden, 
and the running of Sunday trains and of horse-cars. 
The museums and the libraries must be closed. The 
truth is, there is danger lest the vulgar common peo- 
ple will learn too much. Mr. Moody thinks we should 
not dance Sunday or any other day. The bird's song 



352 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

is a sin, and the gayly blossoming flowers are sadly- 
wicked ; while the busy bee is a spiteful little mon- 
ster of impiety. But the sons of man are lords even 
of the Sabbath, and, thanks to their awakening judg- 
ment, they are beginning to realize their right. It is 
all very well to teach a day of rest as a matter of 
economy, or even of religion, in one way; but to 
teach it as a religious dogma is absurd, and people 
are beginning to admit it openly, for none have ever 
pretended to believe it implicitly, or to live up to any 
such belief. Furthermore, men are claiming the right 
to rest in whatever way they please, as well as when- 
ever seems best to them. 

As a final result, people begin to think that the 
theologians have laid down doctrines about things 
concerning which they know no more than others 
whose pretensions are a good deal less sounding, and 
to conclude — and with a good deal of wisdom, too — 
that, after all, the essence of religion lies in correct 
living, and that a moral life is the highest end of man. 

Considerable space has been taken up so far in 
stating what morality is not. We may well abandon 
the faults of Christianity, yes, and the whole system 
of faith, to the mumbling, chanting priest, and hasten 
to define in some slight measure what is compre- 
hended in this general term, morality. An accurate 
definition of the term is perhaps impossijple. No 
formula can be laid down which can be guaranteed 
to apply with success every time. Tom Jones said 
that no amount of rules could make a man as good 
as his father, good old Squire Alworthy; and al- 
though his spiritual instructor saw fit to box his ears 
for it, most people will believe that Tom was right. 
The ordinarily accepted rules are as inadequate to 
measure a moral life as a foot-rule is to measure 



MORALITY. 353 

the sun. There is virtue outside of moral tenets^ — 
most of it lies outside. Beyond confessions of faith 
there is moral truth ; and there lives abundant piety 
that worships no Christian deity, just as there is jus- 
tice outside the courts, and crime not confined within 
prison walls. A sounding name is not goodness j one 
may be moral and a benefactor who at birth and death 
has passed unnoticed. Morality is simply the per- 
manence of an approving conscience. 

Virtue is greatest in love for man, which, indeed, is 
of itself love of God ; for we touch God when we lay 
our hands on a human body. To teach the fruitless- 
ness of moral action is to dissuade men from the hab- 
its of rectitude. People Avill not try to be noble if 
nobility is represented to them as impossible and of 
no value. The past is not a desert, and our deeds are 
not unworthy in the light of heaven, if we become 
better and nobler. Good actions never fail to elevate, 
not only the one who performs them, but all men. 
No one can tell where an action, good or bad, ends ; 
no one can say that it ever does end. Even he who 
gives the occasion for good, or the motive, is sharer 
of the fruit. I know of no worship like brotherly 
love. 

Eemember of whom it was said: "Much shall be 
forgiven her, for she hath loved much." 

It is a good deal better to do a kind deed once in a 
while than to be a regular attendant at church. All 
the patient listening to tiresome sermons, all the con- 
tribution to Pundita Ramabai, all the play-work de- 
voted to senseless nothings for church fairs, all the 
missionary discussions of the ladies' circles, is out- 
weighed a hundred times daily by the kind helpful- 
ness of the servants below stairs. There is quite 
generally more downright morality and helpfulness 

23 



354 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

in the kitchen of ninety-nine out of a hundred great 
houses than there is in all the rest of the mansion. 
There is something humiliating in awakening to the 
fact that one's own under-servants, perhaps the very 
scrub-women, are really one's betters. 

How many rich ladies would give up their ride in 
the park of a pleasant day to do an act of common 
decency for their servants ? How many men would 
give up a single afternoon at the club to help a friend 
in need ? The most selfish men I have ever known 
were churchmen, were honest Christians. God be 
praised, all such are not so. I think of noble Chris- 
tian women ; they outnumber the men. I know of a 
fine Christian gentleman, more than a millionnaire, 
who deducted a couple of days' wages from the pay 
of his farm-hands who had spent the time dragging a 
pond for the bodies of two children, of one of their 
fellows, who had drowned there. We — that is, most 
of us — love our friends; we will do anything for 
them, anything in the world, in a pinch, but we can- 
not quite give up a minute of our pleasure for them, — 
oh, anything else ! Here is a poor, ignorant paddy, 
with a dirty mop-rag of a dress, who washes down 
the steps; and yet she has more faith and charity, 
with all her popery, than a whole Episcopal synod. 

Action rather than belief is the test of virtue. 
The essence of faith is work. A lazy man is never 
moral. Idleness begets corruption. Like stagnant 
water, the system becomes foul from sheer inactivity. 
All Nature purifies itself in action. Death is only 
apparent suspension of activity, Decay is continua- 
tion of activity and life. 

It is a pity that no religion can get itself estab- 
lished whose fundamental doctrine is work. This is 
the very element which all religious faiths promise to 



MORALITY. 355 

eliminate in the future. Depend upon it, man will 
find no heaven without work ; with work he will 
wish for none, for he has already found one, and has 
no time to think of or care for any other. Work 
brings happiness and love and purity. Idleness 
brings misery and lust and depravity. There is no 
class of men more pure and manly and happy than 
workingmen, in whatever field of labor you please. 
It is the rich and well-to-do who need to learn to 
work, and to work unselfishly. Profit and loss pre- 
vails altogether too much in this little world of ours. 
Even the children at school are taught it, and trade 
jackknives as sharply as their fathers trade stocks. 
Is it not philanthropic gambling to grind a thousand 
men down to the last penny, and then to give old 
clothes to the beggar at the door ? It is even cheat- 
ing in the game. This is not for all time, or else 
virtue is a delusion and religion a dream. The con- 
sciousness of good beyond price, or fame, or hope of 
reward, is the noble part in life. It is no use to 
worship without toil. Impossibility is simply the 
greatest possibility in the whole Avorld. 

There is hunger and cold and crime in the world : 
who caused this ? The nobility, the aristocracy, 
come in for their full share of the blame. Dives is 
the greatest cause of Lazarus. Who is it that pays 
for the splendor of kings and the magnificence of 
courts, — who, but the poor ? The ragged clothe the 
royal. 

If there must be sacrifice, let it be sacrifice to the 
people. What a glorious incense that would be ! If 
only our fasting meant the feeding of the hungry, it 
would be a blessing indeed. Would that Lent were 
something more than a fashion ! Oh, noble sacrifice, 
that which serves the unfortunate, disinherited, de- 



356 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

spairing masses ! Give the poor common people of 
your abundance, you who have so much for frivolity. 
Give them money, or, better still, give them thought; 
give them love, and, best of all, give them your own 
attention and service. Listen to their complaints, 
listen to their confessions ; listen, and help their 
strivings. They do try very hard to do right; you 
shall learn it of a truth, if you will but try. Alas, 
alas ! the poor and downtrodden suffer so much, and 
know so little. 

The masses will help themselves, if opportunity is 
given. If it is not given, the time will come when 
they will help themselves in another way, and you 
too. But only reach out a hand to the mass, and it 
will grasp it with ready and intelligent good-will. 
Teach it letters, and it will smile. Be kind, and it 
will be thankful ; be generous, and it will not abuse 
your offers ; be faithful, and it will be as true as 
steel ; be moderately attentive, and you will never find 
a more willing pupil. With all your inattention and 
selfishness, it has learned a wisdom not be despised. 
Think where it would be to-day, if as much time and 
attention had been directed to its education as has 
been spent in its oppression. Wisdom teaching igno- 
rance is the noblest ideal of mankind. 

" Ein unniitz Leben ist ein f riiher Tod," ^ says the 
German ; and a nobler saying was never , penned. Be 
of some use, be of some service, to mankind. People 
must think of something, — think of making the 
world better. There is no caste in doing good. He 
that serves gives his attention alike gratefully to the 
weak and the strong, the poor and the ignorant. It 
is enough that these exist at all. There is a whole 
world of work before humanity. Whoso will take 

^ " A useless life is an early death." 



MORALITY. 357 

hold in earnest, will in that moment set a hundred 
other hands busily at work. It would be grand, and 
it is by no means impossible, if idleness should be- 
come a dishonor. Human history would be over- 
turned in a twinkling, if in some way the question, 
Who is this worker ? could be changed to the re- 
proach, Who is this idler ? What a beehive this 
world would become ! And there is music, too, in such 
activity. How delightful is the hum of the bees ! 

The duties of these times are complex, without 
doubt. Only, one thing ought to be settled by this 
time, and that is that mere thought and love are not 
enough. These must be followed by action. Here 
is a duty ; take your position right there before it, 
and doggedly fight it out. Never admit defeat. Any 
man who will stubbornly persist in struggling can 
tire out any condition imaginable here on earth. 
Death itself will never dare attack an aggressive man. 
When it meets such a one, it steps one side, until 
finally, old age bringing weakness and decay, it 
again approaches and boasts of a victory which it 
never won. 

The dignity of mankind is a great lesson to be 
learned. That conceit which teaches that man is 
God's chosen creation, made in his image, object of 
his especial care, for whose delectation all the stars 
and the heavens were made, is wholly separate from 
this human dignity referred to. Let man realize that 
he is a part of the infinite, even though a small part, 
and as such has a certain proportionate responsibility, 
which is and must be the inevitable attendant of his 
existence. This responsibility is his, and his alone. 
1^0 one can take it from him ; no one can lessen its 
burden. Each and every man must answer for his 
proper share of work. If he improves his opportuni- 



358 CHRIST ^5. CHRISTIANITY. 

ties the very best he knows how, all humanity is the 
better for that life. If, on the other hand, he shirks 
his duties, human progress and well-being is in that 
exact proportion injured. 

Consider the awful grandeur of life viewed in this 
light. In sorrow, I fear, most of us will have to 
admit that our influence for good has not been what 
it ought to have been, and might have been, with a 
little more effort and a little more conscientiousness. 
Think of it : you and. I might have made all future 
men somewhat better than they will be, but for our 
laziness, our carelessness, our downright selfishness 
and crime. If we had only done all that we were 
capable of doing in the years already gone by, 
humanity would have been a notch farther ahead 
than it is, even though a small one. 

Suppose we take another view. Suppose not only 
that we have not lived up to the measure of our ca- 
pacity for good, but have even voluntarily or perhaps 
wilfully perverted that capacity. The enormity of 
that crime seems terrible. We have actually and 
wilfully hindered human progress. Humanity would 
have been farther on in its journey, if we had never 
lived. Of how many shall this be said ? How many 
on reading these words hear the verdict of conscience, 
^' Guilty " ? It makes one fairly shudder to think of 
the number, and of the enormity of the crime. It 
seems to me that this judgment of conscience is worse 
than a thousand years of hell. It causes a sinking 
feeling and a faintness. Mankind would have been 
better if I had never been born, or if I had died in 
my infancy. I think such an idea might drive one 
to suicide. 

Quick, let us make up for the past ! There may 
yet be time for us to fill our measure just a little 



MORALITY. 359 

more than half full. And it will be no small comfort, 
if it be found to exceed the half limit by a single tiny 
grain ; but oh, the grief, if it be found lacking by an 
atom ! Alas, a long life, and humanity the worse for 
it ! God forbid, gentle reader, that this be your fate 
or mine ! 

Oh, let us hasten ! Let us forget our weariness and 
our care, and think only of making up for the past, so 
as to do our duty in some small measure to our fellow- 
men. There is too much grief in this world for you 
and me to live idle or thoughtless, — too much hun- 
ger, too much cold, too many haunts of vice, too many 
lives of shame, too much ignorance and superstition. 
A home slowly becomes cheerless and silent ; or if 
there is any sound, it is that of sobbing. The quick, 
strong, manly footstep has become unsteady and sham- 
bling. The old, noble, loving glance is now brutal 
and sensual. Is there anything here that resembles a 
home you know, my brother ? Is it possible that you 
have caused such sorrow and shame ? Ah, you who 
triumphantly shake your head and rejoice in your 
virtue, have you ever tried to lift up hearts so down- 
cast ? Quick, before it is too late ! There are ten such 
houses where you might do good, and you have never 
once tried. 

The cheerless chamber of the poor but beautiful 
girl suddenly becomes a pretty bower; laces grace- 
fully fold about the window, little ornaments lend a 
charm to the once bare shelves, and elegant dress 
adorns the form that but yesterday could scarcely 
hide its shame. Knock at your heart ; is there any- 
thing there that resembles this ? Did you ever cause 
this ? Society is full of error which earnest hearts and 
willing hands can lessen in love, but only in love. 

Education is the greatest need. Light the torch; 



360 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

you cannot see in such darkness without a bright 
light. Instruct the young and the ignorant. Above 
all, labor for the young. They it is who shall make 
the future. It is well enough in a way to lighten the 
burdens of the aged ; but to see that the young get 
their burdens swung properly on to their shoulders is 
a hundred times more important. I would give more 
for " Life's " Fresh Air Fund than for all the labors 
of the American Board of Foreign Missions for a 
generation, and I do not say that missions are worth- 
less. Pundita Ramabai, the Japanese missions, and 
Borriboola-Gha are all outweighed by a single bright, 
clean-washed boy face and clean-clothed boy form, 
breathing for a brief two weeks God's pure country 
air in the care of pure-minded, noble women and 
generous men. Do, in the name of conscience^ give 
these boys and girls a cup of cold water. Send them 
to school to bright, clean, pure-speaking, and pure- 
acting women. 

And you that have the teaching of these children, 
be mindful of your responsibilities. You may make 
a noble life, which in turn may make a thousand, or 
you may turn to evil one that will lead a thousand 
astray. Yours is about the highest position in this 
world ; and yet so few of you know it, and so few of 
those who give you places, and haggle with you over 
a paltry dollar of remuneration, have any appreciation 
of your virtues. You that teach little children the 
alphabet and the first reading lessons, you that vigi- 
lantly guide and watch the development of reason, — 
you, noble men and women, are the world-makers 
more than all others. 

Many shall hate you and look down upon you, — 
many that owe to you alone all that they have in the 
world. So hated others before them the great master. 



MORALITY. 361 

who, like you, patiently drudged and groaned over 
dull minds and unwilling hearts, glad, even like you, 
to win a single smile or catch the gleam of a single 
eye beaming with aw^akening intelligence. Do not 
weary of your task. Yours is a rich reward. The 
future shall connect your name with all that shall 
be known of goodness and greatness. You are the 
steady workers in the grandest field of labor the 
world has seen. Depend upon it the harvest shall 
be great in proportion. 

Sometimes everything seems discouraging. There 
is so much to be done, and so few who seem to be ready 
to work in earnest. We pause and sigh and linger a 
little before we begin. Who has not in this way lost 
many precious moments, hours, days ? Perhaps dis- 
couragement comes after a period of earnest work. 
On looking about, the field seems without limit. 
Our efforts are scarcely appreciable. In surprise we 
exclaim : " What ! so much evil yet, so much igno- 
rance ? " And then, just at the critical moment, some 
one adds the straw that ends our usefulness. Some 
one always preaches from the old texts, "It is no 
use ; the world is bad, and cannot be made good. If 
you will be pure and win salvation, leave it to its 
miserable fate; hate it and place your faith in heaven; 
pray to be delivered from its shame and sin; save 
your own soul regardless of the world." 

Such is the temptation which besets every earnest 
worker for humanity. And it is the temptation of 
Christianity. This great faith is the ruin of many 
noble efforts. It seals the fate of many promising 
beginnings. All of us, as we journey along through 
this life, find many obstacles in every stage. By far 
the greater part of these annoyances are stumbling- 
blocks that other people who have passed before have 



^^ 



CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 



put in the way, or at least have suffered to remain 
there. Thieves infest other roads than merely that 
which leads down to Jericho ; and the unfortunate and 
the unwary ever fall in their way, to the horror and 
disgust of priest and Levite. Good Samaritans, too, 
thanks to the ceaseless upward journeying of humanity, 
are always to be found on all roads ; and owing to the 
brave efforts of untiring bands of good and true men 
and women in all ages, their number is ever increas- 
ing. Disregard the insidious suggestions of Chris- 
tianity ; keep steadily and faithfully at work. Scorn 
to leave a good work, one which meets with the ap- 
proval of conscience, at the nod of any priest or the 
command of any god. It is no God that commands the 
abandonment of mankind; be sure it is the devil mas- 
querading in some god's clothing. Pledge yourselves, 
as the heathen do, never to accept personal private 
salvation so long as a single one of your brother-men 
is denied the bliss. Pledge yourselves to remain at 
his side, striving with might and main to lead him in 
that better way ; and remember that the pledge is of 
little consequence without the act. 

Let us all, great and small, rich and poor, in all our 
work, — the laborer at his bench, the lawyer at the 
bar, the minister in the pulpit, — confront dishonesty 
and imposture, denounce hypocrisy, and aid virtue. 
And let us begin with ourselves. Let us preach a 
good deal less, and practise more. Let us reckon that 
day lost during which we have done no good deed. 
Let us change our ideas about death. 

Our ideals form the goal towards which we should 
strive, not the ideals of the past. The world has 
changed wonderfully during the last three centuries. 
The evils of the past are not the evils of the present. 
There is even more to be done now than there was then. 



MORALITY. 



3^3 



No wonder the timid are appalled, and fear to attack 
the evil they find. Not less is required of us, but 
more, just in proportion as our opportunities exceed 
those of long ago. It is just as much man's duty to 
see that his duties increase daily, as it is to fulfil 
them day by day. Teaching by example is the best 
method of instruction. 

Humanity no longer enslaved, but free, is the great 
hope of the future. It is a strange thing to alter the 
past ; but it is done, and of itself almost. Christianity 
as an infallible religious system has been dying since 
the Middle Ages. Then was the first victory of rea- 
son and morality over Christian theology. The old 
ideas of life and duty are thrust aside, and new and 
better ones proclaimed. The old religion is little 
short of a dead thing. It is not moral enough for the 
times. It has been patched and mended time and 
again, until it is all shreds and patches. It is fit now 
only to frighten idiots. The scarecrow excites only 
derision from the wise, who indeed are likely to lose 
all respect for its past service, seeing its imbecile 
attempts to thrust itself upon unwilling but patient 
humanity. The angels of light are in full pursuit of 
the legions of darkness and ignorance. 

The great fact which shines out bright and clear in 
the face and eyes of mankind is this : the whole uni- 
verse is an infinite chorus wherein man has a part to 
sustain. We must sing with full rich voice the praise 
of the Infinite all the days of our life, in cheerfulness 
and in labor and in love. When the affections glow 
with kindly feeling for others, and fairly render 
helpfulness imperative, joy is but another name for 
heaven. When one thinks of the Greeks, one realizes 
that hope moves faster than fate. We do believe in 
progress, though j and it is inevitable, whether we 



364 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

believe in it or not. I put my shoulder to the wheel, 
determined in intention to aid progress. It may be 
true that the ark of God is in better hands than ours, 
and that it will always have better protection than 
we can give ; but no one whose opinion is worth any- 
thing now thinks that God will strike him dead for 
an honest, earnest attempt to steady the car, or to aid 
its progress. 



RELIGION. 365 



X. 

RELIGION. 

"Est Deus in nobis." (Yes, God is in us.) 

HUMANITY for six thousand years has been a 
pupil in Nature's school, and not altogether a 
brilliant one. Many individuals have always out- 
ranked the rather slow-moving masses. As six thou- 
sand years ago, humanity is still a great child 
unwillingly moping off to school, preferring a hun- 
dred times to loiter and play, though in ignorance, 
than to study and toil to enlightenment. Neverthe- 
less the species has always felt in some degree, rather 
indefinite at times, the same hunger and thirst which 
has incited its more brilliant members to their no- 
blest efforts. This hunger is common to all ; all have 
much the same means of satisfying it ; but some 
know better than others how to apply the resources 
at hand, some have greater capacity for hard work, 
some have a fuller appreciation of results than 
others. 

This great hunger is ignorance. The means of sat- 
isfying it is education. The final result is knowledge. 
There is an infinite rotation of these three on succes- 
sively higher planes. Knowledge, as soon as it is 
acquired, becomes ignorance again on a higher plane, 
only to emerge as higher knowledge. This progres- 
sive rotation is religion. Blessed hunger and thirst 
after righteousness ! 



366 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The greatest revelation that ever comes to a man is 
the realization that he is what he is because of the 
patient, laborious toil of his ancestors, combined with 
his own comparatively insignificant personal efforts. 
A hearty appreciation of the labor of the past is a 
complete rejuvenation, or a new birth. Through a 
great sea of blood and tears mankind has slowly 
waded and toiled on and on toward the promised 
land. The wilderness has been long and trying. On 
the steep winding path many stragglers, weary and 
footsore, have fallen never to rise again. The great 
mass has struggled onward and upward with infinite 
persistence, with hands torn and bleeding, but with a 
courage undaunted by fear, unshaken by failure, sub- 
lime in its steady, unfaltering faith in something bet- 
ter and higher and nobler beyond. Surely God is in 
us. Our faith is God : our love, our hope, our courage 
is God. 

But the end is not yet. We are still only in the 
early stages of the infinite journey ; but the same 
sweet old courage and patience will live within us 
through all the way. Climbing to perfection is slow 
and laborious work. See it in our speech. Thou- 
sands of agonizing years, sweet ages of sorrow and 
labor, have passed since whining, grunting, stuttering 
man tried, oh, so hard ! to tell his thoughts and feel- 
ings. And now, with all our books and with all our 
speech, the tears will rise and the sob will break in 
our vain attempts to describe feelings which we suffer 
to impart, and to express thought too delicate and 
profound for human speech. We stamp, we gesture 
and gesticulate, we make faces and utter cries to aid 
speech in indicating thought and feeling. No single 
mind can measure or comprehend all the labor and 
grief — yes, and joy too — that changed the early 



KELIGION. 367 

beginnings of men that ran with the beasts in herds 
in the forest, scratching, lighting, snarling, snapping 
over the miserable gronnd-nuts and acorns, free gift 
of Nature, to the present educated man, seated at his 
elegant table in peace and plenty, happy with chosen 
companions of like tastes and feelings, or discussing 
calmly and dispassionately the interests of his fellow- 
men, or again studiously sitting buried in thought 
over the treasures of the great minds of the past in 
the cheerful, inviting library. 

Consider the growth of art. How great is the span 
between the early cave-dwellers who chipped out the 
pictured rocks on Lake Superior, and the mediaeval 
masters who decorated the great cathedrals of Europe ! 
Who would dream that the savage who scrawled his 
god on the smooth sand of the shore, would learn to 
paint the Sistine Madonna ? Or who could imagine 
that the hand which scratched in effigy the monstrous 
shapes of old Egypt and the Nile, would ever acquire 
the delicate touch possessed by a Landseer or a 
Douglas ? In that remote past, which seems so dead 
and unreal to us, was downright truth sought with 
the hardest labor and the highest patience. Choose 
whatever field you will, it reveals the same patient, 
persistent toil. One age takes up the labor of its 
predecessor and bears it on to the next. This is the 
great torch-race of the nations ; only each century, 
each generation, fans the torch to a brighter glow, 
passing it on to the next increased in brilliancy. 
Well for us if we are as earnest for truth and right in 
our times, with our greatly increased opportunities ! 

We are altogether too apt to speak with disrespect 
of the past, — at least those of us who are educated 
and critical. We are inclined to find its faults over- 
mastering. We speak rather of the ignorance and 



368 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

superstition than of the honest endeavor. The great 
labor and heroic sacrifice escape our attention. We 
look to find great results where we should be grateful 
to find earnest efforts. The past represents the labor ; 
the present the finished work. We, too, in our turn 
are toiling nobly over a work which the future will 
enjoy. If we wish credit for our efforts then, let us 
now gratefully remember the past. 

That dim, unknown past was not all error. There 
is a' great element of truth in it, quite comparable, 
too, with the truth of the present. We who may 
enjoy the fruit of those times shall yet never taste 
them, until we have learned rightly to appreciate 
the self-sacrifice and devotion of those who have gone 
before. We shall never rise to the opportunities 
given us, until we understand the relation which 
exists between our times and the Middle Ages. We 
shall never adequately meet our duties and obliga- 
tions, until we learn to value the gifts showered upon 
us in the untiring efforts of our ancestors. While we 
reject the results of the past, let us thoroughly un- 
derstand and appreciate the efforts of the past. It is 
our duty to reject the results which are largely er- 
ratic, though it is sad to confess that many of us are 
still unable or unwilling to do this. 

Some one has said that the most creditable part of 
the past is that which has been forgotten, and the 
most uncreditable part is that the world has forgot- 
ten it. Let us honor the heroic men who made the 
present for us. The quantity of work that has been 
forgotten in this world is saddening to think of. We 
do, to be sure, honor in a very ignorant, unenlightened 
way many of the gods of the past. The noise of our 
rejoicing over these really lost worthies is strangely 
like braying. We speak of the laws and the miracles 



RELIGION. 369 

of Moses, and attempt to bind tliem to the present ; 
we forget tlieir relation to their own age, which is 
indeed glorious. We praise Christ as Lord and 
God, thinking our whole duty lies in his worship; 
we forget that he said, " I am a servant among you." 
We boast of the orthodoxy of Luther and Calvin ; we 
forget the freedom and independence which was the 
very fountain of their efforts. A time comes, how- 
ever, though in revolution itself, when these great 
lights and their real work are understood. If this 
time did not come to pass, what would become of 
us? 

Religion does not consist of theologies or theogo- 
nies. Creeds and sects, commandments and sacra- 
ments, are by no means essentials. They are but the 
husks, and too often contain worms which have eaten 
out all the heart and kernel. They are like language 
which may be intelligible to those born and bred 
to the tongue, but which is utterly worthless to a 
stranger. The religious sentiment is susceptible of a 
countless variety of forms and expressions. These 
forms vary in value as the times vary. But it is not 
in these different forms, whether of a generation or 
a century, sure to change, that we are to search for 
religion exclusively. All contain religion in some 
degree, it is true ; but none is its complete expression. 
They are but the incidents of religion. Sects are 
the incidents of Christianity. Now, just as Eoman 
Catholicism, Methodism, Congregationalism, Univer- 
salism, and all the other schools are recognized as 
the incidents of Christianity, not any one individu- 
ally and exclusively its essential; so Christianity, 
Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and all the other faiths 
are the incidents, not any one the sole essence, of 
true religion. 

24 



370 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

The very name "religion" itself is apt to mislead. 
When the word is used it calls to mind, not neces- 
sarily that great universal sentiment which is as old 
as the world, if not the universe itself, but rather 
some form of worship or sectarianism. This is 
wholly apart from the idea at present intended. 
The religious sentiment — call it piety, or goodness, or 
what you will — is now under consideration. Outside 
of philosophy and theology, pure and simple by it- 
self, is religion. We may experiment with logic and 
reason until doomsday, indeed beyond the judgment 
itself we may indulge the fancy and imagination ; but 
above it all will rise the sublime and significant fact 
of a living man, a living world, a living universe. In 
contemplation of universal life, the petty differences 
and contentions of mankind dwindle into absolute 
nothingness. The great religious hymn of the uni- 
verse rises everywhere, from everything, and forever 
and ever. 

But what form does this religious sentiment take 
among men, viewed at its highest and best ? Simply 
this, — a perpetual reaching out for the ideal. True 
religion is to live fully up to the light which is given, 
and to strive and hope for more. 

This is the great moving sentiment at the basis of 
every creed and sect, though at times it is all but lost in 
the tangled web woven of contention and intolerance. 
The hour now is when true believers worship in spirit 
and in truth. This is the only true religion that ever 
existed. Such a faith was long before Christ ; such 
a faith has been ever since, — never general or uni- 
versal, always rare in its higher types, outside of 
Christianity as well as in it, indeed rather than in it. 
Webster defines religion as the recognition of God as 
an object of worship, love, and obedience. This is all 



RELIGION. 371 

very well for ordinary use, to buy and sell by, but 
altogether insufficient to rise by. To become great 
and good requires a higher and broader definition than 
this. There is no particular hill where God is wor- 
shipped, nor does true religion require a pilgrimage 
to Jerusalem. 

" God attributes to place 
No sanctity, if none be thither brought 
By men who there frequent." 

The capability of infinite variation in religion is at 
once apparent, viewed in this light. Religion differs 
in every individual according to the light which he 
has. The Eastern peoples, more than all others, seem 
to grasp this idea intelligently. The beautiful story 
of the three rings, which Lessing in his masterpiece 
has immortalized, well illustrates the thought. Each 
of the sons has the real ring bequeathed by the father 
to the best beloved, so long as each in love honestly 
believes his own to be the right one, and strives to 
prove the virtues of his priceless possession by deeds 
of kindness and charity ; for the father loved all with 
equal love. 

Equally expressive are the other well-known legends. 
Buddha is detained on the shore of an impassable 
river, when several good souls build each a bridge 
for him to pass over. He separates himself into as 
many forms as there are bridges, and thus each spirit 
believes Buddha to have used his own. And again, 
when another divinity dances with a shepherdess, 
each of the others present believes he danced with 
her. True religion is spirit and truth. Wherever 
man earnestly and honestly strives for the highest 
ideal appreciable by him or possible to him, there is 
religious worship absolute, though his vexy labor 



372 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

itself be error. Be true to yourself. There cannot 
be a righteous judgment of actions and aspirations 
considered apart from, and unrelated to, the mental 
state of the individual. What is righteous and reli- 
gious in one may well be criminal and impious in 
another. Moreover action and belief are no correct 
indication of the moral status of the individual, unless 
the result of his own reflection and judgment. 

Our very errors are significant indications of our 
real faith. Without this continual striving for the 
ideal, suffering and toil were without merit in us, and 
the error were criminal indeed. Thus considered, the 
failings of the past no longer seem mean and censur- 
able. The Bible becomes a beautiful and instructive 
history of the unceasing endeavor of humanity. Vir- 
tue being sought for its own sake, without expecta- 
tion of reward or favor or riches or power, this is 
the ideal upward struggle of mankind, — this is reli- 
gion to-day, and the underlying principle will not 
change. Where selfishness, which seeks a reward, 
where treachery, where indifference prevail, there is 
unreligion, impiety, atheism. Purity of heart and 
honesty of purpose in human effort is the only true 
religion. Christ defined it in one word, — Spirit. 

Eeligion henceforth is never a known concrete quan- 
tity. It can never be reduced to an arithmetical number 
or integer. It is a constant progression ; its ideal or 
goal is perfection. Its realized forms never reach 
truth absolute. Its expression is the asymptote of 
truth, always approaching truth but never reaching 
it, except in infinity or perfection, which is the same 
thing in morals. 

Its progress is traceable in the modification of the 
forms of its expression. Progress in morals and in 
religion alike is accomplished in two ways. First and 



RELIGION. 373 

foremost, there is moral and religious sentiment, the 
result of experience and reflection. A healthy senti- 
ment must underlie healthy action. This sentiment 
soon results in action, and quickly forms rules of con- 
duct, which is the second means of causing progress. 
Under certain conditions, rules and formula? appear 
of themselves to cause progress. Closer inspection, 
however, will always reveal the sentiment beneath, 
which is the real source of life. 

Man comes to know that certain things are wrong, 
and he has learned that in honesty he must abandon 
ways and courses which he recognizes as immoral. 
The very knowledge of wrong teaches avoidance of 
wrong. Here is a sentiment which has begun to 
work. He soon reduces to tangible form the things 
which he is to shun. He makes commandments, for 
the most part prohibitive. He dwells on the rewards 
of right living ; he emphasizes the punishments of 
error. He exaggerates both, indulging his imagination 
as he thinks to their enhancement. But it proves at 
times unpleasant to thwart desire and habit. It 
attracts attention, and he prefers to keep in the old, 
popular, established ways. So a compromise is struck 
with conscience. Curious ways are discovered of 
avoiding the real issue. Substitutes are provided. 
Sacrifice is established by which the old courses may 
be persisted in. A tax is paid for privilege. A pen- 
alty is incurred for the gratification of desire. The 
letter of the law is regarded rather than the spirit. 

Thus sentiment becomes a mere form. Instead of 
a religion we have a superstition. The superstition 
is popular because it permits error and indulges vice, 
by introducing the idea of atonement or pacification. 
By penance or prayer or sacrifice, God can be bought 
off. Soon this practice becomes so universal, and 



374 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

immorality becomes so common and flagrant, that 
conscience will not be easy, and finally rebels and 
reasserts its superiority. Again we return to reli- 
gious sentiment, which is strengthened, and acquires 
a higher meaning. 

A familiar form of religion may be considered by 
way of illustration. Prayer and sacrifice have always 
existed in some form in every religion. At first sac- 
rifice of human life in urgent need is practised. The 
Hebrew Jephthah sacrifices his daughter; Greek Aga- 
memnon sacrifices Iphigenia ; barbarians cast their 
infants into the flaming arms of idols, or drown them 
in the bosom of the river god. Among the Hebrews 
there came a day when Abraham led Isaac up into a 
mountain to offer him as a sacrifice to his god, believ- 
ing it to be his sacred duty ; but as he looked at the 
slender form of his dear boy bending under the bur- 
den of sticks which, all unknown to him in his inno- 
cence, were to complete in anguish the cruel expiation, 
the poor father out of his love for his boy begins to 
question within himself. What was the deed which 
he was doing ? Was it necessary ? Why should the 
lad suffer ? He was innocent. He is my own dear 
boy, and I love him ; and my heart bleeds to bring 
this pain upon him. Natural affection cries out 
against such cruel sacrifice. It seems rather sacri- 
lege. Ah ! there it is, there is God ; and God tells 
him the sacrifice is not required : and he clasps his 
son to his distracted breast with sobs of mingled 
grief and joy, and offers up a kid instead. This is 
a step higher. 

Many years later Christ appears, and teaches the 
folly of sacrifice in any form. He stands before the 
altars at Jerusalem, and cries : " I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice." He even attacks prayer itself as 



RELIGION. 375 

practised among his people. Never did hypocrisy- 
receive a more crushing blow than at the hands of 
this great reformer. He tells men to go off alone 
and pray in secret, and to commune with God and 
self in retirement. Here is another step. 

We have not as yet reached this high example set 
by the master. Brute sacrifice is gone indeed ; but 
the old hypocrite's prayer remains, shouted out to 
God in open church, on bended knees, in the pres- 
ence of thousands. Long ago some rebelled, and said 
they would not kneel to pray, but would pray stand- 
ing or sitting. This is a short step. Another step is 
taken inwardly and secretly. Most people now stand 
or sit with considerable patience, but only pretend to 
pray. With bowed heads and closed eyes they reckon 
their gains, or dream of worldly pleasures. Few lis- 
ten at all to the parson's prayer ; most neither pray 
nor listen, unless out of curiosity, or because of the 
fame of the preacher. I have known good people to 
sit with bowed heads and count, so as to make the 
time pass more quickly. 

Prayer in the old form is fast disappearing every- 
where, even in the church itself; already it is almost 
gone from daily life. Bribes of blood no longer suf- 
fice, nor the enticements of fruit and cakes and wine. 
The cajolery and flattery of prayer are equally impo- 
tent, and humanity is beginning to see it. In the 
church short prayer is looked upon with increasing 
favor ; a few years ago a solid half-hour was taken 
up by the prayer at mid-service. Few of us pray 
at all at home, and almost none pray regularly. At 
church we only respectably bow the head, and leave 
the praying to the preacher. The time will come 
when we shall see the folly of such prayer altogether, 
and have the courage and honesty to say so. The 



376 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

prayer of a good deed or a good thought, and the 
prayer of inner communion in retirement, — the soul- 
struggle of right and wrong, — will never be lost, 
thank God, till man, having become perfect, shall 
have no occasion to struggle with wrong. 

This modification of sacrifice and prayer affords a 
perfect illustration of religious progress. The old 
altars are discarded and despised ; the old ceremonies 
seem like idolatry. Religion springs up with new en- 
ergy, and combats with fierce determination what it 
now considers to be sin, and cleaves with dogged per- 
sistence to what now appears to be true and right. 
This continual reaching out for better ideals is per- 
manent, and at basis remains ever the same. Reli- 
gion is a single principle, but its forms are multiple. 
The principle exists, even though the keenest intel- 
lects cannot detect it ; it appears alike in idolatry and 
materialism ; it is found alike in Christianity and in 
atheism. Paganism, scholasticism, and superstition 
reveal its presence. Wherever man has a hope or 
an ideal, he will strive to attain it : this is religion. 

The heart always retains its single character ; and 
what we of to-day at the best admire in antiquity 
is the honesty of purpose clearly perceptible in the 
great mass of ignorance, of error, and of cruelty. Re- 
call the greatest of the Old Testament characters. 
Consider the qualities which are ascribed to Moses. 
He is a prophet, a priest, a warrior, a lawgiver, and 
a lover of freedom. Of all these characters bound up 
in that one man, what remains and truly lives ? The 
prophet raises a smile ; the priest excites a sneer ; the 
warrior calls out feelings of horror and repulsion ; 
the lawgiver is buried under the rubbish of antiquity : 
but the lover of freedom lives, and shall live forever. 
When we think of Moses, what character does he as- 



EELIGION. 377 

sume ? He frees the children of Israel from bondage, 
and leads them up out of the land of Egypt. 

The past is past. It has done its work, and has 
done it well. It takes years to advance a single step 
in civilization. Compared with the infinite, centuries 
are but infinitesimal periods of time. Considering 
individual lives separately, one by one, progress 
seems almost hopeless. Why, mankind has not yet, 
no, not in these eighteen centuries, attained to the 
ideal of morality which Christ set up as a standard. 
Humanity to-day cannot be compared in morality, or 
in religion either, w^ith the best of the Pagans. What 
shall we say, then, of the future ? Is humanity well 
on towards the goal, or is it but just started in the 
race ? Is it still in the cradle, or is one feeble foot 
already in the grave ? Is the battle for truth and 
right, which from the first man has been fighting, a 
fixed law or principle of his existence ? These ques- 
tions cannot be answered intelligently. No one 
knows the ultimate destiny of man, or of this world 
which he inhabits. Somehow it seems true that the 
fate of man and the fate of this world are linked to- 
gether. Science tells us that the world is fast wear- 
ing out, and that it cannot last much longer. But 
Science may change its mind. It has changed a good 
deal in the past, and probably it will change much 
more in the future. Sectarianism tells us that 
the world will end ; but it is altogether uncertain 
when and how, despite the prediction of the Yale 
professor. 

Are science and sectarianism always to be at 
swords'-points ? Knowledge hitherto has been con- 
stantly thwarted by established religion. Perhaps 
the greatest progress we can expect in the near future 
is a cessation of this hostility. Established religion, 



378 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

let us hope, will soon rejoice in the progress of knowl- 
edge. Sectarianism, welcoming investigation, would 
be a glorious step in advance. The old jealousy lost, 
with how much greater speed would man advance, 
and how much smoother would the way become ! It 
is not too much to expect the speedy realization of 
this long-cherished hope of independent minds. I 
love to linger over the peculiar significance of Uni- 
tarianism. This little Christian sect — indeed, the 
only sect that is Christian in the true sense — seems to 
me in a way to possess the key to the whole situation. 
Here is an established Christian sect actually welcom- 
ing investigation, ready and eager to accept new truth 
and to test new discoveries. Bound to no set rules, 
owning no creed, it alone of all the sects is in a posi- 
tion to advance with civilization and science. Em- 
bracing among its universally educated and intelligent 
followers some of the most advanced and ablest think- 
ers, who moreover have the splendid courage to fol- 
low and teach the conclusions of their reason, it alone 
seems able to aid scientific progress. The other sects 
can but follow, all somewhat of a hindrance to Science, 
some dragging like a leaden weight at her skirts. 

In the light of these things it cannot be claimed 
that we are not advancing. But there are, and always 
have been, two classes of men, not separated indeed 
by any sharply drawn line or distinctive mark, but 
still in general clearly to be distinguished. There 
are the highly educated thinkers and philosophers. 
They distrust the masses of men. They have no con- 
victions. They are wholly passive and without im- 
pulse. It is axiomatic with them that the masses 
receive their light solely from the aristocracy, and 
that reform is brought about by the profoundly edu- 
cated. They fear to trust power to the common 



RELIGION. 379 

people ; they hardly venture to grant them education. 
They think that a lie is better than the truth under 
some circumstances. 

The other class consists of those who have un- 
bounded faith, in general, in the ultimate triumph 
of truth and right in all conditions of life. Not pos- 
sessed of so much learning as the first class, they have 
more wisdom and practical judgment. With these 
the whole question seems to be merely to point out 
the truth and let it stand for itself. They would 
place any amount of confidence in the common 
people. They would give them the benefit of the 
highest ideas w^hich they possess. Universal educa- 
tion, they think, is the highest possible blessing to 
humanity in general. They believe that men will on 
the whole cleave to the right, if only they can under- 
stand what is right, and that error and crime are 
almost invariably the result of ignorance rather than 
wilful and premeditated. The practice of conceal- 
ment or falsehood they judge the most dangerous 
policy possible in dealing with human affairs, fearing 
sooner or later inevitable ruin. With them the con- 
viction that a given idea or condition is right ab- 
solutely precludes the possibility of its concealment. 
It must be made known because it is right. 

Each of these classes is undoubtedly possessed of 
religion; but the religion of the one is beyond all 
comparison with that of the other. Each class has 
religion because each is honest. Eeligion is impos- 
sible without honesty. The beneficial effect of the 
latter class, that which believes in universal educa- 
tion, surpasses that of the other class beyond com- 
parison. If we have advanced at all during the last 
four thousand years, it is through the diminution of 
the ignorance of the masses. W^e are better than the 



380 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ancients because we know more tlian tliey did; and 
our knowledge enables us to increase our adherence 
to right. They lived up to their convictions of right 
and duty quite as faithfully, in their way, as we now 
live up to our similar convictions. They had just as 
much relative honesty as we now possess. The ad- 
vancement consists rather in this, that their idea 
of honesty is not ours. Owing to the persistent up- 
ward toiling of man, the horizon has broadened. 

This broadening has of itself introduced another 
factor into the net result. The ratio of the good and 
the bad is changed for the better. Here again we 
have improved on antiquity. If this be not true, re- 
ligion is a delusion and a lie, and morality is only a 
show of goodness. Increase of knowledge is not 
enough. Enhanced material prosperity will not suf- 
fice. The soul must be improved correspondingly. 
It is not enough for man to labor and study, unless 
there is something elevating in it all. The sorrow- 
laden heart must be relieved. Evil must be dimin- 
ished, or humanity is but an idle nothing, a mere 
bauble in the universe ; and such a conclusion would 
render the universe itself a stupendous lie. 

There has been altogether too much pessimism in 
this little world of ours. The spirit of the old cynic 
of the Ecclesiastes still lives and thrives beyond 
measure. Too many people have cried : " All is vanity, 
vanitas vanitahim." There are actually people in this 
world who are grieved because they can find nothing 
to excite grief. This morose cynicism prevails in 
quarters least suspected. Our established religion is 
full of it. Its god is jealous ; its priests are jealous ; 
its proselytes are jealous : all are forever crying, 
" Vanity." 

But pessimism and superstition have seen their 



RELIGION. 381 

best days. True religion at present is prevailingly 
optimistic. It finds the world and its labors and en- 
joyments righteous and worthy. If only the whole 
Church would swing in line, if it had the faith of a 
grain of mustard seed, the present period of wavering 
uncertainty and pessimistic scepticism would quickly 
pass. But we may wait patiently. It is the people 
that establish reforms ; and though they move slowly, 
they certainly do advance. Let them once appreciate 
a truth, and it is sure to prevail with them. The 
masses are honest, and education will not hurt them. 
Already the time is past when teachings can be laid 
down as infallible because they have been considered 
so, and have come down to us through the Scriptures. 
Already the verdict is pronounced that infallibility is 
no longer believable. It is generally admitted that, 
after all, we must fall back on reason, than which we 
have no other guide. It is too late now to say men 
must yield up their reason, though it be to the god of 
never so powerful a religion. Man and God are one ; 
man is God. The schools have done their work too 
well for this. There is more religion in the school 
to-day than there is in the Christian Church ; God be 
praised for so much ! 

Man is beginning to appreciate this, — that he is 
responsible for his acts, and that no one can relieve 
him of this responsibility. Here is the foundation of 
a faith of surpassing grandeur. Many forms it will 
doubtless assume. Its expressions will be quite as 
varied as that of the religion of the past. Like those 
of the past, it will have the common element of sin- 
cerity, but sincerity on a higher plane. We are on 
the point of undergoing a complete intellectual revo- 
lution. The tides below have been surging and melt- 
ing, and the centre of gravity of human intelligence 



382 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

has been slowly changed. The instability of the 
times is as clear as day. There is an equilibrium, 
but the tendency is to swing over the centre and past 
recovery. 

Education has made this state possible, but its 
duties are by no means fulfilled. It has but begun 
the good work. Greater responsibility than ever now 
rests upon it. Increased freedom must be attended 
with increased power of self-command. The divine 
order of teachers must prepare the intellect for inde- 
pendence, or the result will be disastrous. Estab- 
lished religions are past influence when people begin 
to smile and shrug their shoulders over the sacred 
doctrines and the divine inspirations. When a system 
of religion is played on the stage as a diversion and a 
delight, its usefulness is past as a moral guide. Woe 
to humanity if none is forthcoming to take its place ! 

But it is only the narrow-minded, the foolish, and 
the ignorant who deplore the secularization of the 
times.-^ The pessimistic denounce education. It is 
unreligion that decries the extension of literary de- 
lights. It is impiety that grieves over the multipli- 
cation of libraries and their increasing size. It is 
atheism that groans over the growth of secular schools 
and colleges. It is not the loving minister, but the 
bigoted priest, that is sorry to know when he rises in 
the pulpit of a Sunday that his hearers have their 
minds saturated with the news of the day. There is 
abundant reason to thank God that people go to church 
Sunday as they might go on Wednesday or Thursday. 
This is just the spirit that is most needed at present. 
If only people would go to worship Sunday with ex- 
actly the same practical earnestness that they carry 

^ Reference is made in this and the following pages to the ad- 
dress by Dr Storrs before the American Board, March 19, 1891. 



RELIGION. 383 

to business Monday, the prevailing mummery and 
nonsense, not to say hypocrisy itself, would disappear 
like the mist before the morning sun. 

There is reason to be thankful that preaching be- 
gins to be educational and entertaining. The iron- 
bound shoes of an earlier day are best laid aside, with 
the other rubbish of the same antiquity. It is well 
to class the Garden of Eden with the other fables of 
the past. But it is saddening to learn that men who 
exert great influence in the Church grieve over the 
fact that money which might go to spread the gos- 
pel among the heathen of foreign lands is spent upon 
free libraries, Christian associations, and for secular 
educational and charitable purposes in general. A 
single pure-minded teacher of human knowledge will 
weigh more in the scales of God than a thousand 
missionaries of the divine gospel. Of the telegraph, 
the railroad, and the secular school, any one alone has 
done more service to God, during its existence, than 
the whole Christian Church put together for the last 
three hundred years. That is not a despicable idea that 
the gospel, viewed in its old orthodox light, is being 
left — not to Providence, that was a mistake — to the 
devil : that is not despicable, I say ; it is divine, it is a 
glorious triumph of pure religion. Then it is true, is 
it, that secular influence is pervading, dominating, and 
managing the Church ? I begin to see more of God in 
the Church now.-^ 

Let us not pray so much as we have in the past, 
and not at all in the old way. Let us not wait for the 
spirit to come upon us. The spirit never comes to 
those who wait in idleness. Let us rather take right 

^ Dr. Storrs announced what the author had not dared assert, 
from his lack of knowledge of church management. Dr. Storrs 
will be sufficient authority for the most exacting. 



384 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

hold in earnest, as if we meant what we ssij ; let us be 
early at work and late to rest. Above all, let us be 
honest and sincere. And yet hypocrisy is not the 
worst possible evil, for it immediately precedes a step 
in progress. The very existence of hypocrisy itself 
reveals the fact that he who descends to practise it is 
aware of the truth. This is an advance from super- 
stition and ignorance. Another step, and he will 
confess the truth. 

Let us not abandon the Church. It still, if rightly 
directed, may confer benefits incalculably greater even 
than it ever has in the past. It is not necessary to 
subscribe to its creeds to secure enrolment. Often 
the most influential workers are not strictly members. 
Let us become earnest workers in the Church ; such 
will inevitably drive out the hypocrites, and encourage 
the righteous to renewed efforts. A little of God's 
pure light of this nineteenth century will dispel the 
gloom of superstition that still lingers in the dark, ill- 
ventilated temples of worship. Pure religion, pure 
air, and fresh sunshine will drive out cant and 
mummery from the darkest corners and the narrowest 
aisles. Independence of thought and freedom of 
speech will confound the bigotry of the most obsti- 
nate of priests. Only let the people show that they 
are in earnest, and there is no reason to fear that the 
clergy will persist in their dogmatic doctrines and 
ceremonies. The clergy, generally speaking, always 
will tag along a little behind civilization. It is only 
in ages of popular ignorance that they lead, and those 
times are now some distance in the rear. 

Humanity is dependent upon no capricious god 
defined by creed and sect. As a constituent part of 
the infinite universe, man is not wandering aimlessly in 
unlimited space. The universe is not subject to whims 



RELIGION. 385 

and vagaries. Man, as subordinate to the infinite, Avill 
worship and serve what he believes the infinite to be. 
He will be obedient to infinite truth as he understands 
it. He will never grow weary of pushing the stone up 
the hillside, though he knows it will surely elude his 
efforts and roll heavily down again. He will make 
mistakes, but he will also correct them ; he will 
commit absolute crime, but he will repent ; his efforts 
will result in failure, but still his aim will ever be 
high. He will always strive to pierce the unknown, 
though his language may change, together with the 
whole outward character of his labor. Man will 
always be religious, his intentions and his strivings 
will always be holy in the aggregate, no matter how 
impious they may seem during certain limited periods. 
When he falls, he will struggle to regain his feet. 
Education will never supplant religion, for the simple 
reason that its very essence is religion. 

Alas for those who assert that religion is passing 
away ! jSTever was the world more religious than it 
is at present -^ never was religion purer and more 
unselfish. Alas for those who seek to restore the 
authority of a dead dogmatism and an antiquated 
orthodoxy ! Woe unto you, hypocrites, who for pol- 
icy's sake seek to impose upon others beliefs which 
you no longer share ! 

There is no longer a religion, say you ? The still, 
small voice of God is hushed ? Ten thousand thou- 
sand schoolhouses rise on every hill to proclaim the 
glory and sing the praise of God. A countless army 
of teachers, rich in the blessings of heaven, clad in 
the mail of truth, bearing the book instead of the 
sword, in purity and in love sing of the Avisdom of 
God. Millions of children and youth, God's own 
little children, trudge nobly off to school every morn- 

25 



386 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ing just as God's sun is well above the horizon, to 
recite the lessons of his world-book of truth. Do you 
say there is no religion in education ? Listen and 
believe. Why ask for Truth, when she stands there 
before your very face and eyes, if you will but look ? 

Or think of the charities of the present, — the great 
secular charities, denounced by the pulpit, blessed of 
God. Think of the kindness of the world that has 
time to love and cherish, not only humanity, but all 
living things. Think of the societies for the preven- 
tion of cruelty. His prayer is good who has love for 
all living things ; his prayer is best who loves them 
best, even as they are all loved of God. Think of the 
administration of justice. Compare modern justice 
with the best jurisprudence of antiquity, and in that 
comparison you will find God. Consider the generos- 
ity of to-day, that gives its hard-earned millions to the 
causes of education and charity, that creates fresh-air 
funds, that sends unsparing relief to the suffering and 
unfortunate by disaster, without solicitation, ungrudg- 
ingly, out of a pure and godlike heart. Do you find 
no religion in all this ? Is God wanting, and has he 
lost his power. Think of it, a single book is made to 
feed thousands of the hungry and thirsty. Still no 
God ? you infidel ! you atheist ! God has in- 
deed left you, and your miserable soul is sombre and 
dull with darkness. Saddest of all, you yourself have 
banished God ; you have hidden the light which he 
gave you. Where will you gain that by which to light 
it again ? Alas ! I know not. 

As in Christ's time, again we are told by the clergy 
that God exists only in their pitiful doctrinal disputes. 
His home is declared to be the synagogue. His wor- 
ship is reduced again to a form and a dogma ; piety 
has become a ceremony and a show ; religion is again 



RELIGION. 387 

reduced to a wax taper and a bishop's cap. Prayer 
is degraded to a senseless mummer}^ or an impertinent 
bawling on the street corners and in public places, to 
be seen of men ; and the clergy are crying that there 
is no God in the world, and no religion at all. What, 
none ? i^o God in the printing-press, no God in the 
telegraph, no religion in the railway and steamship 
lines, no piety in the libraries and museums, no wor- 
ship in the public parks and gardens ? None ? Eyes 
have you, but they see not ; and ears, but they are 
dull. 

I tell you there is a God and a religion, grander 
and nobler than any dreamed of in antiquity. We 
have a master. If he is worldly and selfish, so are 
we ; if he is noble and pure, his purity and nobility 
live in our minds, his features are even stamped on 
our faces. Look back into the past : there is the 
god of the barbarian ; and there is the semblance of 
the savage face, — rude, heavy, coarse, and sensual. 
Now look here : this is the God of civilization ; and 
here is the type of the civilized face, — features dis- 
tinct and animated, full of intellectual expression, 
refined and moral. Yes, there is a religion to-day, 
and it is grand and noble. It manifests itself in 
love of man, which of itself is love of God. Public 
generosity is God working in the world among the 
souls of men. We said material and intellectual pro- 
gress was not enough, unless man is made better by 
it. Man is made better. We are richer than Ave 
were in worldly goods ; and so, too, we are richer 
in that other treasure which neither moth nor rust 
corrupts. 

Religion abounds in the common heart, and sings 
as never before from the common soul, and never be- 
fore in such harmony and unison. Amidst the chang- 



388 CHRIST vs. CHRISTIANITY. 

ing religious systems of man and the transformations 
of human language, amidst the varying forms of gov- 
ernment and the alteration of social customs, religion 
pure and simple, sweet truth of God, has remained 
steadfast and resolute, firm in its faith in righteous- 
ness, constant in its noble strife for good, better, and 
best. Everything has passed away but this one stead- 
fast principle. This wondrous sacred song, sung to 
the admiration of more than two hundred generations, 
not only retains all its ancient charm and sweetness, 
but has acquired in the fleeting ages increased rich- 
ness and enhanced grandeur. This strange old poem 
still commands the admiration and venera,tion of minds 
purified and enriched by the ceaseless labor of many 
nations and many centuries. Having survived in- 
numerable transformations, it still remains to us, a 
glorious heritage, and will endure forever with the 
everlasting vigor and immortality of truth; and like 
truth, it shall expand. Religion is still with us ; God 
is still in us. Never before, since that early day v\^hen 
the morning stars first began to sing together, has 
there risen from this world, itself a tiny twinkling 
star in the infinite chorus, such a full, rich melody, 
such a noble, ringing anthem, to swell the praise of 
the Infinite God. 



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